


She-Ra and the Crystal Gems: Rise of the Machines

by TheInkredibleKaptainKaiju



Series: She-Ra and Steven Universe: Heroes United [4]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Horde Prime, Alternate Universe, Fandom Fusion, Gen, semi-original characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 52,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23207407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheInkredibleKaptainKaiju/pseuds/TheInkredibleKaptainKaiju
Summary: In the wake of Skeletor's reign, Steven and the Crystal Gems find themselves stranded on Etheria, with no way home. However, a bad situation soon becomes worse when a new threat emerges, hell-bent on destroying everything in its way. Luckily, the Gems have a team of princesses on their side to help them defend the planet(s) from this enemy. Their greatest challenge begins now!
Series: She-Ra and Steven Universe: Heroes United [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440292
Comments: 9
Kudos: 18





	1. Occupation

**Author's Note:**

> And so, the new adventure has begun! From this point on, I can guarantee that the stakes will only get higher and higher, and the challenges our heroes face will only get harder and harder! Hope you enjoy!

** She-Ra and the Crystal Gems: Rise of the Machines **

Chapter One: Occupation

_ _ _

Two weeks had passed since Steven and Connie had disappeared off to Denebria with the Crystal Gems and Princess Alliance. The two of them going off on an adventure was nothing new, but for them to be gone for this long was beginning to worry their friends and family.

Unbenounced to the people of Beach City, upon arriving on Denebria, the gathering of heroes had had a run-in with the Horde, intent on reclaiming the artifact that Adora had taken from them. In the ensuing battle, Steven had attempted to bring what he had thought to be a friend back from the dead, to disastrous results. That same person had turned out to be an ancient necromancer, manipulating Steven to his own ends. While this evil had been defeated, the Crystal Gems were now trapped on Etheria, with seemingly no way to get home.

The worst part, at least to those still on Earth, was that they had no way of knowing what had happened in recent times. For all any of them knew, something had gone wrong when the team had gone into space. For Connie’s parents, Doug and Priyanka Maheswaren, who were new to the idea of having their child go on dangerous adventures, this uncertainty was most unwelcome.

“And you’re sure you don’t know anything about this?” Priyanka asked Greg, during a lazy day at his car wash. She could hardly stand still, resisting the urge to pace nervously across the pavement.

“I wish I did,” said Greg solemnly. “I know just as much as you do, which isn’t much. I haven’t heard anything from them in days.”

Doug sighed. “I just wish there was something we could do. Some way to know if she was hurt.”

“I’m worried about Steven, too,” said Greg. “But you have to remember, both he and Connie were with the Crystal Gems. They’d never let anything bad happen to either of them. And I don’t know much about those princesses, but they all seemed capable. All we can do at this point is have faith. Trust me, having faith is what kept me together for these last few years.”

“And what about that terrible Horde that took over the whole town not long ago?” asked Prianka. “You don’t think this has anything to do with them, do you?”

Greg sat down on a nearby crate. “I honestly have no clue,” he said, sounding somewhat defeated. I don’t know anything about this ‘Princess Alliance’ or ‘Horde’ or whatever. All I know is that they came from another dimension out of nowhere, and started acting like they owned the place. And that Steven made friends with some of ‘em.”

“He does tend to do that a lot, doesn’t he?” Priyanka mused.

“Heh, you said it,” Greg chuckled. He stood up. “Steven can always see the best in things. People, situations, it doesn’t matter, he can see the good in just about anything. Which is why I‘m sure that, wherever he and the others are, they’re doing just fine. And they’re doing everything they can to get back home.”

“We can sure hope so,” said Doug. “We’ve tried pretty much everything else, so hoping is just about all we can do.”

Just as their conversation was coming to a close, the three of them heard a sudden shout from off in the distance. “Mr Universe! Connie’s Parents!” The call had come from Lars, who was running towards them alongside Sadie.

“Huh? What’s the matter, you guys?” said Greg. From the way they were running, whatever was going on seemed urgent.

“It’s...there’s a--a spaceship!” said Sadie, out of breath. “Near the beach!”

“A spaceship?” said Priyanka.

“Yeah! It just came out of the sky, outta nowhere!” said Lars. “Steven could be on it!”

“Which means Connie could be on it, too!” said Doug.

“Come on, lead the way!” Greg urged of the two teens.

All five of them hurried over to where the ship had been seen. By now, a small crowd had gathered near the landing site, trying to get a good look at the vessel. Mayor Nanefua and her guards were making sure that nobody strayed too close.

“Everyone, please, step back!” urged Nanefua. “We don’t know what this is, or where it came from. It could be dangerous!”

As for the ship itself, it looked nothing like the green, hand-shaped Gem craft Steven and co. had flown away on. This ship was rectangular in shape, and had no paint at all, making it a dull grey, metallic color. It would actually be quite boring were it not for one decal: an emblem showing the likeness of a pair of red wings. This did not bode well; few recognized this symbol, but those who did knew it from the Horde’s takeover of Beach City.

“So, that’s it, huh?” said Greg.

“Yeah,” Sadie answered. “We were just minding our own business, taking a walk on the beach, when all of a sudden, this ship just shows up outta the blue!”

“We thought that Steven and the others could be on it, but now, I’m not really sure,” said Lars. “It’s just sorta...sitting there.”

“Well, if Steven didn’t bring it here, why else would it be here?” said Priyanka.

A few moments later, this question would be answered. With a hiss and a jet of steam, the sides of the ship raised up, startling the onlookers. What was inside the ship, however, was even more startling. Within the ship were no less than eight humanoid robots, each tucked into its own compartment. Once the hatches were raised, the metallic figures sprang to life: each one had a single visor shaped like an eye, which burned a harsh red color. The machines disembarked, their white exteriors glinting in the midday sun as they marched to equidistant locations around the ship.

A monotone voice emerged from the robot nearest to the watching humans: “Landing procedures successful. Planet identified: Etherian Colony ‘Earth.’ Now scanning for lost artifacts.” Just as it said, all the robots began combing the nearby area, using a red light from their optics to scan the area around them.

“Well, this isn’t exactly what I was expecting,” said Doug.

“And what  _ were _ you expecting?” asked Priyanka.

Soon, the scans reached the nearby citizens. The robot that detected them immediately ceased all its efforts, instead focusing on the humans. “Intelligent life verified,” it said. “Playback enabled. Now running data log zero-zero-one.”

This robot tilted its head upwards, from which a large holographic image appeared, the same red as its eye. This image appeared to depict a human man, a king at that. He was covered in a long, regal robe, a dark beard covering his face, and an ornate crown atop his head.

An audio recording accompanied this image as well. “I bid you greetings, inhabitants of the planet [Earth],” said the man. The name of the planet was clearly said in the same voice as the machines, indicating a blank space in the recording to be filled as needed. “My name is King D’Vann Grayskull, current regent of the planet Eternia, and overseer of the Great Computer initiative. If you are receiving this message, it means that Horde Prime, latest of the Great Computers, has deemed it necessary to occupy this world in pursuit of its goal. In order to assure that this goal progresses smoothly, I ask that each and every one of you cooperates. It may not be easy being under its command, but I can assure you, Horde Prime was created with a bright future in mind. A future free from the tyranny of Gemkind. Farewell, and many thanks in advance for your cooperation.” With that, the crimson hologram disappeared from view, leaving behind only several very confused townsfolk.

“Uh, did any of you understand any of that?” said Greg. “All I heard was something about a grey skull, and then it all sort of melded together.”

Sour Cream, who was onlooking as well alongside Buck Dewey and Jenny Pizza, leaned over. “I recorded the whole thing,” he said, “so I could play it back later.”

Meanwhile, one of the townies was not happy with the robots’ arrival in the slightest. “What did you do with Steven!?” shouted Ronaldo to the robot. “Answer me!”

“Ronaldo, calm down!” said Peedee, attempting to reign in his elder brother. “You don’t know what happened!”

“Oh, and these guys just  _ happened _ to show up when Steven and his friends went missing?” Ronaldo asked sardonically. He pushed his way through the crowd, getting right up in the robot’s face. If it had one, that is. “I’m on to you! Who do you work for? The space police? The Galactic Inquisition? The Evil Horde?”

The automaton's unblinking eye focused on the teen in front of it. “Citizen, please comply,” it said stiffly.

“You can’t silence me!” shouted Ronaldo. “I know my rights! Now tell me where you took Steven, or--”

A harsh droning sound was emitted by the bot, which had evidently grown tired of being questioned. It raised both of its arms forward: both of its hands shifted downwards at the wrist, revealing a pair of glowing red blasters within its arms. Ronaldo, as well as everyone else, took several frightened steps backwards.

“Citizen, please comply,” the robot said once more. Its voice now sounded much more forceful, though still without emotion. After it was sure it would receive no more trouble from either the blond teen or the other terrified townsfolk, the robot sheathed its blasters, and went on with scanning the surrounding area.

“This isn’t how I expected this day to go,” said Doug, watching the patrolling robots warily.

“I don’t think any of us did,” said Greg. “Still, I think Fryman’s kid had a point. These things showed up out of nowhere not long after Steven disappeared. I’d be willing to bet they’re connected somehow.”

“That’s the least of our worries,” said Priyanka. Her gaze skyward, the others turned to see what she was looking at: several more of the rectangular ships were descending from the sky towards Beach City.

“More of these things,” said Sadie, the worry in her voice clear. “What could they be after?”

Lars gulped. “Nothing good,” he said.


	2. Rise of Prime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horde Prime begins its assault on Gemkind, and finds something that may help in its conquest.

Chapter Two: Rise of Prime

_ _ _

Earth was not the only planet that Horde Prime had gone to.

As it was created for the sole purpose of eliminating Gemkind, its robots had spread out throughout the galaxy and beyond for this very purpose. Its tactical mind evaluated the best way to destroy its enemies: attack the undefended colonies and outposts first to weaken Homeworld’s supply line, before going after the more heavily-armed planets once they were running low on resources.

Currently, Horde Prime had only just begun this plan, so it had spread to only a few planets in Homeworld’s empire. Unfortunately for them, most of these were weakened by Skeletor’s attack just weeks previously. Horde Prime was able to catch them off-guard with overwhelming numbers.

Each planet it attacked was swarmed by hundreds of thousands of cybertroopers. Horde Prime tended to eschew larger, more powerful units in favor of mass-producing these smaller robots, but it would begin producing some of these once it had more of a foothold on a given world. After the cybertroopers had weakened the planet’s defences, they would be finished off with cybertanks and a cybercolossus or two.

As its mission was to eliminate Gemkind, Horde Prime paid no attention to the loyalty of the Gems in question. Even Gems that had turned their backs on Homeworld, such as Hessonite and her crew, were being targeted. The mining ship she and her fellow Garnets had turned into a sanctuary for off-colors was currently under attack by cybertroops.

“This is not good. Attacking machines have almost breached the outer hull,” reported Demantoid.

“How much longer before you can get that hyperdrive running again?” asked Hessonite from the bridge.

Demantoid, who was repairing said hyperdrive, scanned it with her visor. “Hyperdrive has sustained minor damage,” she reported. “Providing there are no further complications, it will only be a few minutes.”

Hessonite looked at the ship’s radar: the enemies were swarming around behind them. With limited offensive capabilities, all the Gems could do was wait until the bots boarded the ship, and deal with them then. This was not without risk, of course.

“Pyrope, what’s the situation down there?” asked Hessonite.

“Oh, it’s just grand,” Pyrope said. “These metal heathens just keep breaking through! I should think they would get the hint with how many of them we had destroyed!”

Pyrope led both the charge on the advancing robots, as well as the evacuation efforts. Aided by her Prism, Pyrope, as well as any other Gem that felt combat-ready, held the line while Gems that weren’t retreated to the lower levels.

“I have almost repaired the hyperdrive,” said Demantoid. “We will be able to escape soon enough.”

“That’s exactly what you said ten minutes ago!” shouted Pyrope, as she sent a robot against the wall with a gust from her fan. “Could you maybe hurry it up!?”

“If you would like to assist me, I would be happy to go much faster,” Demantoid said, the slightest hint of exasperation in her voice.

“Could you two please stop bickering for once?” said Hessonite. “We have bigger things to worry about right now!”

The pair grudgingly obliged. While their ship continued to speed through the darkness, Horde Prime’s own swarm of dropships continued to give chase. Cybertroopers continued to board it, and were continually destroyed by Pyrope and her miniature posse. Until the hyperdrive, damaged in this very assault, was fixed, it seemed that the situation would continue on in this manner.

However, it was then that an unforeseen event would take place. During its assault on Gem territories, Horde Prime was continually scanning for anything that could give it a leg up on its foes. First Ones tech, abandoned ships, anything that could increase its damage output. This was the same reason it had come to Earth. While its scanning capabilities were powerful, they were unfit to breach dimensional barriers. However, due to Skeletor’s defeat having some unforeseen consequences, there was a bridge between Etheria and the main universe. A bridge far too small for any object to pass through, but just large enough for Horde Prime to detect a massive power surge. And while its scanning could not penetrate the way to Despondos, Horde Prime was more than capable of opening a portal of its own.

At that moment, all vessels pursuing the larger ship immediately fell back. The Gems destroyed the remaining robots, which didn’t put up much of a fight. “Hessonite? I think they’re retreating!” exclaimed Pyrope.

“It would seem so,” Hessonite replied. The radar showed all enemy ships falling back, converging on a single location.

“So...does that mean we won?” a Ruby at Pyrope’s feet asked.

“Repairs on the hyperdrive are complete,” Demantoid said before Pyrope could answer. “Ready to engage warp shortly.”

Hessonite watched the robotic menaces warily. Yes, they had retreated, but why? They hadn’t done anything differently to warrant this retreat, only fighting them as usual. She looked on as the ships, clustering together, began to glow. A dim blue light appeared at the front of each vessel, growing brighter as they seemed to coalesce.

“What are those things up to now?” asked Pyrope, who could see the glow from where she stood. “We should leave before they attack again!”

For a few seconds, the ships floated around as if they were searching for something in the vacuum. Evidently, they found it: the light reached its brightest, creating a pulsing pattern that overtook each one of the dropships. When the light receded, each one of them was gone without a trace.

The Ruby stared at the place where the ships had been. “Well, alright then. I guess we won!”

“This is...concerning,” said Demantoid. “I cannot imagine what would prompt our attackers to call off their assault, but it looks as if they have access to teleportation technology.”

“It would seem so,” said Hessonite. “But we can’t worry about any of that now. We need to get to somewhere safe before we run into more of them. All hands, prepare for warp.” The orange Garnet engaged the newly-fixed hyperdrive.

“We should really find some weapons for this ship,” said Pyrope, before the ship sped off to robot-free space.

_ _ _

“You know, we may be stuck on this planet...but you have to admit, it’s really pretty,” said Steven.

Of course, both himself and Connie were quite upset with being stranded away from their friends and families. But after a few days on Etheria, both of them had come to accept their situation. They were still looking for a way home, of course, but at least they were surrounded by new friends.

For example, both of them were now admiring the beautiful meadows not far from Plumeria. The Gems and She-Ra had just finished fighting off a Horde squadron muscling in on the small kingdom, and were now resting before returning to Brightmoon. During this time, Steven and Connie had decided to take a walk to take in the landscape.

“It’s beautiful,” Connie said. “It makes me wonder why the Horde wants to destroy it so badly.”

Steven shrugged. “It seems like villains always want to destroy the environment for some reason. The Horde, Homeworld, those guys from Captain Earth…”

“But what do they have to gain?” asked Connie. “For Homeworld, they want to make more Gems. But what is the Horde after? Just more power?”

“We could always ask them,” Steven said semi-jokingly.

“I suppose we could,” Connie said with a laugh. “Come on, we should get back to the others.”

“Good idea,” said Steven. “This place may be pretty, but I wouldn’t want to get lost out here. Especially with all the monsters. Remember when…”

“When what?” asked Connie. However, Steven was staring up at the sky, focusing on something else. “Steven, what’s wrong?”

“What’s that?” asked Steven. From the sky, a spaceship was descending. It was a dull grey color, and rectangular in shape. It descended not far off, over a few hills.

“I...I don’t know,” Connie said. “Maybe a Horde ship?”

“We should check it out,” said Steven. “If it is a Horde ship, Adora and the others would want to know.” With that, he started off over towards the ship’s landing site.

“Steven, hold on!” said Connie, following after him. “Shouldn’t we get help first? It could be dangerous.”

“We’ll be really quick!” said Steven. “We’ll just go and see what they’re doing, and then hurry back!”

The two of them marched up a hill, greeted by a strange sight once they reached the top. Down in the valley on the other side, a collection of figures walked around just outside the ship. They were white rather than the Horde soldiers’ usual light green, and red light shone along the ground from their red visors.

“Are those...robots?” asked Connie.

“I dunno, I can’t tell from up here,” said Steven. “Let’s get a closer look!”

“Steven hold on!” said Connie. But Steven had already taken off down the hill towards the unknown figures.


	3. Robot Riot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new threat arrives in Etheria.

Chapter Three: Robot Riot

_ _ _

While Steven’s optimism might be mistaken for naivete by some, he was far from stupid. So, as he made his approach to these strange robots bearing the Horde insignia, he made sure to avoid being spotted. Likewise, Connie followed after him, equally stealthy.

The robots didn’t appear to be doing much of anything. There were about eight of them, and each one was scanning the nearby area with a red light from their single eyes. They seemed to be looking for something, but what it was, neither of them had any idea.

“Steven, hang on!” Connie whispered as she caught up to him. “You aren’t planning on talking to them, are you?”

“No, of course not,” said Steven. “At this point, the Horde doesn’t really want anything to do with me. I think it’d be safer if we just stay put.”

Peering around from the large rock they were hiding behind, Steven and Connie watched the robots from afar. They continued scanning the landscape, searching for whatever it was they were looking for.

“Do you think they’re looking for the princesses?” asked Connie.

“Could be,” Steven said. “Or maybe they’re trying to find First Ones artifacts. A lot of people are looking for those these days--”

Their conversation was interrupted when a sudden shadow fell over them. Both of them looked up, startled to see one of the robots staring right at them. The two jumped back, taking on defensive stances towards the bot as the red light from its optic washed over them.

“Intelligent life verified,” the robot said. “Playback enabled. Now running--” The robot stopped mid-sentence, noticing something.

“Uh...hello?” said Steven.

While scanning them initially, the robot had only picked up that they were organic lifeforms. In its residual scans, however, it came across a very important detail. The red light focused on Steven’s belly, specifically his gemstone.

The robot’s forearms lifted up and its hands shifted down to reveal crimson blasters within its arms. “Gem detected.”

_ _ _

Meanwhile, back in Plumeria proper, Bow was engaged in battle against a much less deadly, but no less formidable, foe: mosquitos. Lately, the warmer regions of Etheria were rich with the darn things. Bow swatted at the pesky insects the best he could, but there always seemed to be more.

“Uh, you okay there?” asked Adora. “You look like you’re doing interpretive dance over there!”

“Ugh, no, it’s these mosquitos!” Bow said. “Is it just me, or are they really bad this year?” He smacked one that landed on his forehead. “Why do these things hate me so much?”

“Oh, Bow, mosquitos are just like any other animal!” said Perfuma. “They don’t hate you, they’re just doing what comes naturally to them. There isn’t anything wrong with that!” She immediately changed her tune when she was beset by several of the things, swatting at them. “Ack! Die, bugs!”

“Okay then, while you two wage war on bugs, I’m gonna check in on Glimmer,” said Adora. Picking up the Sword of Protection, she walked over to a small rebel encampment where the princess of Brightmoon currently resided. “So, is everything all set over here?”

“Just about,” Glimmer replied. She looked over several sheets of paper spread out across a table in front of her. “From the looks of things, the Horde has completely cleared out from this area. Our work is done! Once Steven and Connie get back, we’re all clear to head back to Brightmoon.

“You know, that was a lot easier than I was expecting,” said Adora.

What happened next started off subtle enough: just a small hum, barely noticeable. It wasn’t until it grew into a louder drone that the princesses heard it. The drone exacerbated into a rumble, harsh enough to cause small objects nearby to vibrate. Just when it seemed like the whole tent would shake apart, the vibrations subsided.

“What was  _ that _ ?” asked Adora, dumbfounded.

“Beats me,” Glimmer replied. “We should go check.” The two of them hurried outside. “It better not be another Horde patrol…”

Perfuma and Bow both looked like they had seen something, given the way they were staring off into the distance. “Did you see that, too?” Bow asked when the two of them approached.

“No, but we heard it,” Glimmer said.

“What was it, the queen mosquito?” said Adora. “Mosquitos do have queens, right? Like bees?”

“No, it was some sort of ship!” said Perfuma. “It just appeared out of nowhere, flew overhead, and vanished!”

“A ship?” said Glimmer. “What, like a spaceship? Was it Horde?”

“Hard to say, it flew by too fast,” Bow said. “We should--”

“Wait,” said Adora. She had heard something off in the distance...it sounded like blaster fire. “I hear combat. Get ready.”

Indeed, numerous red bolts of energy suddenly landed nearby the quartet. Bow and Adora took off to the sides, while Glimmer teleported to safety and Perfuma created a small tree to act as cover. From the same direction as the blasts sprinted Stevonnie. “Everyone get down, evil robots incoming!”

“What?  _ More _ robots?” said Glimmer. They had just cleared out the Horde in this area, why were they suddenly coming back?

The robots in question marched into view. They were white in color, unlike the Horde’s usual green. Though given the targeting lasers emerging from their visors, and blasts coming from their arms, they certainly weren’t friendly.

One of the robots tried to flank them, walking right past Adora. It seemed to completely ignore her, intent on going after Stevonnie instead. Once she bisected it with her blade, however, the others evidently decided that she was fair game. The same applied to the others: only once they attempted to protect their friend did the bots turn violent towards them.

“For the Honor of Grayskull!” The bots were momentarily distracted by Adora’s transformation, only to go right back to firing almost immediately. Her sword transformed into a shield, she and Stevonnie stood side-by-side, blocking the lasers with their respective shields.

“Think this is some new Horde weapon?” asked Adora.

“Probably!” said Bow. “Stevonnie, what happened out there?”

“These things just showed up!” said Stevonnie. “Connie and Steven were just minding their own businesses, when a big ship came down, and these robots came out of it!”

“Ship?” said Bow. “Was it rectangular, kinda greyish?”

“Yeah!” Stevonnie said. “They were sorta scanning around, but once they saw Steven’s gem, they went ballistic on them! They had to fuse into me just to escape!”

Interesting as this all was, Bow didn’t have time to ponder it now. “Okay, when I give the signal, you two move,” he said. He readied an exploding arrow, aiming for one of the bots’ optics. “Now!” Stevonnie and Adora both leapt to the side, and he let the arrow fly. The projectile pierced through glass before detonating, sending bits of metal and wiring scattering.

Only three robots now remained. They tightened their position, blasters trained on the organics that would dare stand in their way.

“Okay, we need to come up with a plan,” said Bow. “Glimmer, you take out the middle one, and--”

Before Bow could finish his thought, numerous brambles shot up from the earth. The thorny vines cut through the robots’ metal like hot knives through butter, before tearing them apart from the inside.

“Or, Perfuma could just take care of everything,” said Glimmer, sounding pleased with not having to fight more.

The battle over, everyone began to wind down. Stevonnie unfused into her base forms. “Well, that was...something,” said Connie.

Bow looked at the shattered pieces of a robot. “This doesn’t look like Horde technology,” he said.

“I don’t know how you tell the difference,” said Adora. “Robots are robots, and--Argh!”

Adora was cut off when a blast suddenly struck her in the shoulder, sending her to her knees. Fortunately, she was much more resilient in her She-Ra form, meaning she wasn’t badly hurt. It seemed that one bot remained, having snuck around behind them.

“Adora!” cried Glimmer. Wasting no time, she immediately teleported over to the robot, stabbing through its visor with her staff. The bot stumbled around for a moment, before falling to the ground, still. Now the battle was over. Glimmer ran over to her friend. “Adora, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, he just winged me.” Adora shifted back to her normal form. “Good thing you got him when you did, though.”

“Uh, you guys?” Steven said. “I think that robot’s still alive!”

The others turned towards the bot in alarm. Indeed, it had gotten up off of the ground and stood up. Without its optic, it was blinded, unable to see or scan. “Ocular systems compromised,” it said. “Critical damage sustained. Weapons systems offline.”

“Huh,” said Bow, lowering his weapon. “I think we broke it.”

“Well, what do we do with it now?” asked Adora.

“Princess of Power located,” the robot said. “Query not recognized.”

“Wait,” said Adora, “you listened to me?”

Unable to see anything, the robot simply stood still. “Correct,” it said.

“So, then, why did you attack us?”

“Gem detected,” it said. “All Gems must be eliminated by order of the Eternian High Command.”

“So, I guess that’s why it wanted to attack me,” said Steven. “But what is it?”

The robot was silent. Evidently, Adora was the only one it would reply to. “What are you?” she repeated.

“I am Horde Prime, last of the Great Computers,” the robot said. “And I cannot allow any further information to fall into enemy hands.”

Silence. Before Adora could ask it another question, a light hum came from the robot’s body. Bow was the one who recognized what it was doing. “Everyone, get back!”

Everybody hit the dirt right as the robot self-destructed. The blast wasn’t very large, but it was much cleaner than Bow’s arrows. When the dust had settled, no piece larger than a brick was left of the bot.

Adora got up, shaking off the dirt. “Is everyone alright?”

“I’m fine,” Connie said. “I don’t think anyone’s injured.”

Perfuma was looking at the crater where the robot had been. “I think...I think we should head back to Brightmoon…”

_ _ _

“Hmm...these readings don’t make any sense,” said Entrapta, looking over the recent data. “These ships...where could they be coming from?”

A rumble from outside caused the princess/scientist to glance out the window of her lab. Everything in the Fright Zone was as it should be, aside from the ships that were ascending from above. Each of them bore a Horde sigil on their sides.

“This is about to get  _ interesting _ …”


	4. Horde and Horde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horde Prime arrives in the Fright Zone.

Chapter Four: Horde and Horde

_ _ _

For the last twenty minutes or so, the entire Fright Zone had been up in arms. Nobody was entirely sure how or when it happened: One moment, it had been just like any other day, and the next, a bunch of ships carrying robots descended from the skies. None of the soldiers had engaged the bots yet, as a) they were docile at the moment, simply scanning their surroundings, and b) the ships bore the Horde insignia.

As expected, this incursion into the Fright Zone was reported to Hordak immediately. Once he was informed that the ships bore the sigil of the Horde, he immediately ordered that any and all attacks on the robots be halted. About this, though, he gave no further information, other than that he and his chief scientist, referring to Entrapta, would handle the matter alone. What he meant by that, as well as why he wished to handle things in this way, was unknown to his underlings.

Hordak’s Force Captains, prepared to attack this unknown enemy, were ordered to stand down immediately. With no reason to fight, all of them went back to going about their business. One of them, Scorpia, hurriedly returned back to her chambers, making sure she wasn’t followed. This being Scorpia, this meant acting as though everyone was suspicious of her, hiding behind nothing, hiding from nobody, and just generally acting like she was on the run from somebody. Luckily for her, the rest of the Fright Zone was used to her antics by this point, and paid her no attention.

With one last glance over her shoulder down the hallway, Scorpia slipped back into her room, breathing a sigh of relief as the door slid shut behind her. “Phew, that was a close one! I think they’re starting to suspect me. Alright, well, anyways, you can come out now, Wildcat!”

“I’ve  _ been _ out,” came a dry voice from beside Scorpia, causing the large woman to yelp with surprise.

“Catra!” she said. “Oh, you scared me! What are you doing out? What if somebody sees you?”

“I don’t think anybody’s gonna come into your room uninvited,” the feline said. After previously acting behind Hordak’s back one time too many, Catra had been officially banished from the Fright Zone. Scorpia, unwilling to see her best friend unceremoniously thrown out from the only home she had ever had, had risked her own integrity by sheltering the former Force Captain in her own quarters.

“But what about that pet of Hordak’s? You never know where that sneaky little goblin could be…” Scorpia said, shifting her gaze around the room nervously.

“Nah, this room’s isolated,” Catra said, sitting on the bedside. “The vents are too small for it to fit through. Trust me, I checked.”

Her fears put to rest, Scorpia relaxed, assured that her friend was safe for the time being. Or, she would be, if it wasn’t for those-- “Oh! I almost forgot!” Scorpia exclaimed. “There’s a bunch of robots in the Fright Zone!”

For the next ten seconds or so, Catra gave Scorpia a look that could only be described as concerned confusion. “I...know,” she said eventually. “There’s been robots in the Fright Zone for as long as we’ve been here. Are you feeling alright?”

“Huh? Oh, no, that’s not what I meant!” Scorpia said. “There’s  _ different _ robots! Like, from somewhere else! They still have Horde symbols on ‘em, though. Hordak and Entrapta are going to check it out. We aren’t sure where they came from.”

Catra shook her head. “Who would have thought that  _ this _ is where we’d be at right now?” She stood up, angrily pacing around the room. “After everything I’ve given to him, all I’ve done to spread  _ his _ rule, he still treats me like I’m some unwanted stray! I mean, without us going behind his back, Skeletor probably would have destroyed Etheria by now! Oh, but  _ Entrapta _ , no,  _ there’s _ somebody he can trust!” She sighed, slumping back down on the bed. “I just thought that with Shadow Weaver gone, and me as his second-in-command, things would be a lot better…”

“Well...look on the bright side!” said Scorpia. “You still have me, right?”

“I guess,” Catra mumbled.

“And hey, it’s like my granddad used to tell me: ‘If things aren’t going your way, then you  _ make _ them go your way!’ He always told me to take life by the horns, to seize my opportunity! And that, Wildcat, is my advice to you.”

“Make life go my way, eh?” Catra mused. “Easier said than done. Still...there might just be some merit to that.”

_ _ _

“So...how exactly are we going to approach this, Hordak?” said Entrapta. Accompanied by several guards for escort, the pair of them were walking towards a gathering of the robots. Much like Hordak himself, the robotic visitors had reacted strangely upon recognizing the Horde symbols. They immediately converged at the very edge of the Fright Zone, staring intently into the mechanized kingdom as though waiting for something. Or someone.

“Directly,” said Hordak. “If these robots are what I think they are, then they will respond to commands. They could theoretically be used as a weapon against the Rebellion.

“Aaaand, what  _ do _ you think the robots are?” said Entrapta. “You’ve clearly seen them before. Plus, their ships have Horde logos on them. Did Horde Prime build them?”

“No,” Hordak said. “These machines  _ are _ Horde Prime.”

“Hang on, slow down,” Entrapta said. “I’m confused. Didn’t you tell me you were a clone of Horde Prime? So then, how is he a robot? Or a bunch of robots?”

“Allow me to explain,” said Hordak. “‘Horde Prime’ is not a name--it is a title. There have been numerous beings throughout history bearing that title, each one passing it down to the next. My brother, the Horde Prime I told you about, was only the most recent to bear that title. And these machines...according to the stories, they are the very first to bear the title.”

“Ooh...fascinating!” Entrapta busily relayed all of this information in her head. She would have to add this to her journal one they returned…

Currently, the party approached the gathering of robots at the Fright Zone’s border. While Entrapta was quite used to being around weird robots, something about these ones felt...off. The way they just stood there, seemingly staring off into the distance...it was creepy.

Hordak approached the gathering--the sea of glowing red eyes slowly focused on him. His troops, as well as Entrapta, fidgeted nervously a short distance behind him. The troops were more concerned with their own safety in this situation, but Entrapta was worried that Hordak was in danger.

“Horde Prime,” he spoke, addressing the collection of mechanical invaders.

“Correct.” The voice came from the closest of the robots, who stepped over to the Horde’s leader. “We are Horde Prime. We have begun occupation of the planet Etheria, to facilitate our purpose: elimination of Gemkind. Is playback of data log zero-zero-one necessary?”

“No, it isn’t.” Hordak said. “I am Hordak, leader of the Etherian Horde. I served one with your name. Because of our shared interests, I have a proposal for you.”

“Hordak. What do you propose?”

“Seeing as we both wish to exterminate Gems, I propose that we join our forces. My armies are quite familiar with Etheria, so I believe cooperation would be in our mutual best interests.”

The robot stayed silent as the others looked on, seeming to process this information. “Query: what is your goal, Hordak of Etheria?”

“Conquest,” Hordak said simply. “Years ago, I was stranded on this planet when my brother and his armies were destroyed by Homeworld’s forces. I wish to conquer this planet, defeat the princesses, and use its powers for revenge.”

“Illogical,” Horde Prime said simply.

“Excuse me?” said Hordak. “In what way is that ‘illogical?’”

“Data suggests the Princesses of Etheria to be allied with Eternia,” said Horde Prime. “Defeating them is unnecessary to using the planet’s power.”

It was Hordak’s turn to be silent--he hadn’t counted on Horde Prime being on the princesses’ side! Thinking quickly, he realized he had a way to sway this great machine. “I am afraid the princesses have been compromised,” he said.

“Elaborate.”

“The princesses have recently aligned themselves with a Gem cell calling itself the ‘Crystal Gems.’ They and their new allies seek to destroy the Horde.”

“Processing…” said Horde Prime. “Conclusion reached: princesses have gone rogue. Solution: form alliance with Etherian Horde. Gain control of Heart of Etheria. Remove planet from Despondos. Destroy Gemkind.”

“Excellent!” said Hordak with a dark grin. “I am so glad we could come to an understanding.”

“So, did you convince them to join us?” said Entrapta, appearing over Hordak’s shoulder.

“In essence,” said Hordak. “More accurately,  _ we _ will be joining  _ them _ .”

“Oh, okay!” Entrapta said. “In any case, I’d love to get my hands on one of these units! Maybe you could ask them to oblige?”

“Perhaps,” Hordak said. “In the meantime, return to base. We will begin formulating a plan of attack immediately.”

“Formulation already in progress,” Horde Prime said. “Conclusion: take control of Heart of Etheria. Means: eliminate current controller.”


	5. Preparing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Best Friend Squad find that they weren't the only ones to be attacked by Horde Prime, while Adora wants to find out more about it.

Chapter Five: Preparing

_ _ _

“...and then it just exploded!” said Perfuma.

After their encounter with the Horde cybertroops in Plumeria, the Best Friend Squad, Steven, Connie, and Perfuma had returned to Brightmoon to bring news of their attackers. Queen Angella listened intently, though her response was not what they were expecting.

“I see,” the queen said. “So, you’ve had an encounter with these machines as well…”

“Hold on, what do you mean ‘as well?’” said Connie. “We aren’t the only ones to be attacked by these robot things!?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Angella, standing up from her throne to walk down towards the group. “For the last few hours or so, I’ve been receiving reports of sightings matching the description of the machines you described from all over Etheria. They aren’t immediately hostile, but even accidentally getting in their way is enough to set them off. Frosta even brought back an intact head not long before you six arrived.”

“We’ve got a part of one?” Glimmer said. “Well, let’s go see it! Maybe Bow can figure out some way to hack them, or--”

“Now hang on just a moment, Glimmer,” said Angella. “You’ve just returned from a battle. You should at least recharge before leaping off into the next one.”

“Ugh, but Mom, I’m fine!” Glimmer protested. “And besides, the longer we wait, the more ground these things take. We know they’re hostile--they attacked Steven!”

“I mean, they attacked all of us,” said Steven.

“But didn’t you say they ‘went ballistic’ when they saw you?” Adora said. “You two had to fuse just to fight them off.”

“That’s true,” said Connie. “When it was doing that weird scan thing, it even said something when it saw you. ‘Gem detected,’ or something.”

“Then do you think they’re looking for Gems specifically?” said Bow.

“I dunno, maybe we should go see,” said Glimmer, looking at her mother hopefully.

Queen Angella sighed. “There really is no holding you back, is there, Glimmer? Very well. Frosta and the others are gathered in the war room.”

“Great, thanks Mom!” Glimmer said, instantly teleporting out of sight. The rest of the gang stood still for a few seconds, before she reappeared. “Come on, you heard the Queen! Let’s move!” She teleported into a door, opening it and gesturing for the others to follow her.

“So, do you think Hordak made these things?” asked Steven as they headed down the corridor. “That one robot did say its name was Horde Prime.”

“But then why did it respond to Adora?” said Connie. “I doubt Hordak would build a robot that only talks to She-Ra. Well, maybe Entrapta would…”

“Maybe they didn’t build it, just find it,” Adora suggested. “I think I remember it saying something about Eternia. Given how much the both of them like First Ones tech, they probably dug them up somewhere.”

Glimmer opened the door to the war room, where not only Frosta, but the Gems as well, were waiting. The young ice princess was explaining in great detail how she acquired this severed robot head, which Amethyst and Bismuth seemed greatly interested in. Pearl and Peridot were more focused on the robot head, the latter prodding it with a small metal tool. Garnet just sat back, seeming to take in Frosta’s tale.

“...so before I knew what was going on, these weird robots started just walking right towards me! Now, they looked like trouble, but I knew I should wait until they attacked first to fight back. So I...Hey, you’re back!” Frosta had turned around to see the newcomers enter the room.

“Steven! Connie!” Pearl hurried over to the pair, leaning down to examine them for injuries. “You aren’t hurt, are you? I’m so glad you’re okay! With these Horde robots around, and when you were late returning from your mission, I was so worried! And when Garnet said you were attacked--”

“I said they  _ might _ have been attacked,” said Garnet, adjusting her glasses.

“In any case, I’m just glad you’re okay!” Pearl said.

“Aww, Pearl, you don’t have to worry about us!” said Steven. “Not when we’ve got the princesses with us!”

“I’m okay too, thanks for asking,” said Adora.

Steven looked around the room, noticing a curious absence. “Hey, where’s Lapis?” he said.

“She and Mermista aren’t back from Salineas yet,” said Garnet. “We shouldn’t be too worried, though. Robots and water don’t mix,” she explained with a grin.

“Anyways, glad you guys got here when you did,” said Bismuth. “Ice Queen here was just telling us how she killed this robot!”

“Ice  _ princess _ ,” said Frosta. “And that was what I was getting to: I didn’t kill this robot. Something...else did.”

“Uh? And what was that?” said Amethyst.

“Beats me!” said Frosta. “Right as the robots were about to attack me, this giant monster thing burst up from beneath the ice! It looked like some sort of giant, purple worm thing! After it smashed them all, it just went back underground like I wasn’t even there.” She pointed to the head on the table. “This was all that was left.”

“Hmm...that sounds like it was an elemental to me,” said Bow.

Peridot, who had barely looked up from the robot head this whole time, looked up now. “I’m sorry, an ele-what?” she asked.

“Elemental,” said Bow. “First Ones robots that look like giant bugs and stuff. They’re kind of like Etheria’s immune system, protecting it against threats. So i guess these guys are a threat.”

“Yeah, no kiddin’ they’re a threat!” said Bismuth. “Me and Pearl were just minding our own business, patrolling for the Horde on the Brightmoon outskirts, when we suddenly get jumped by these robots from out of the blue, literally! A weird-lookin’ spaceship shows up, and the robots get out and start shooting at us!”

“These robots seem to really enjoy appearing suddenly,” observed Perfuma.

“Hmm...Frosta, why did the robots attack you?” asked Glimmer.

“Oh! Well, that’s…” The young princess seemed hesitant to answer. “I mean, I...I maybe, kinda-sorta attacked them first…”

“What? Why?” said Bow.

“They were shifty!” said Frosta defensively. “Plus, their ship had a big old Horde symbol on the side of it! Was I  _ not _ supposed to be suspicious?”

“So, they don’t attack unless they see a Gem,” said Glimmer. “Or unless someone gets in their way, but that’s besides the point.” She teleported over to the table to examine the head. “But they’re also being attacked by elementals. What’s going on with these things?”

“I don’t know, but there’s only one way we’re going to find out,” said Adora. “I have to take this to the only person on Etheria old enough to know what’s going on.”

“Madame Razz?” asked Frosta.

“Yes, Mada--No! I meant Light Hope!” said Adora. “If anyone here knows about Horde Prime, it has to be her.”

“Hang on just a second!” said Peridot. “Couldn’t you go and ask her  _ without _ taking the head? Just think about how much we could learn about these Gem-killers! Enough to destroy them, hopefully…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring it back as soon as I’m done,” Adora said, picking up the head. “Can somebody get me a sack to--”

Suddenly, the door burst open to reveal a quite frazzled-looking Mermista and Lapis, the both of them soaked to the bone. “Okay, everybody sit down, because you would not  _ believe _ what just happened t…” Mermista trailed off upon noticing the robot head in Adora’s hands. “Ooor maybe you would.”

“I take it you were attacked by robots as well?” asked Perfuma.

“Don’t want to talk about it,” said Lapis, walking past everyone.

“Well, I was just about to go and see Light Hope about that very same problem,” Adora said. “If any robots attack while I’m gone, just...kill ‘em, or something, I dunno. I shouldn’t be gone long.”

_ _ _

“Citizens, stay in your homes.” Horde Prime’s metallic voice droned out at regular intervals to the people of Beach City, urging them to stay home not for their own safety, but to stay out of the machine’s way. Though given its propensity for violence if anyone were to get in its way, these two things could be considered one and the same.

Ronaldo stared out the window of the Big Donut, watching the cybertroops march past for the umpteenth time. “What are these things even looking for?” he groaned.

“Beats me,” said Greg. “Whatever it is, it looks like they haven’t found anything.”

Greg, Ronaldo, Lars, Sadie, Buck and Bill Dewey, Jenny, Sour Cream, and the Maheswarens were holed up inside the bakery, unwilling to step out where the robots roamed. With any luck, they would find what they were searching for, and leave the town, At the rate this was going, however, that would probably take some time.


	6. Taking a Stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a possible way into Etheria reaches Beach City, Lars knows he'll have to take it, even if it means going alone.

Chapter Six: Taking a Stand

_ _ _

“You know what I just realized?” said Sadie, breaking the silence in the Big Donut. “Did Steven’s pet lion go with him?”

“I don’t think so,” answered Lars. “I think Lion’s somewhere by the beach. I haven’t seen him in a while. Good thinking, though.”

For the last few hours, the whole lot of them had been trapped in the Big Donut. Well, not trapped per se, but nobody was willing to risk going outside with the cybertroops. It wasn’t certain if they would attack, but it was a risk nobody was willing to take.

“Hey, did you guys see this?” said Jenny. The teen gestured for everyone else to gather around to see something on her phone. It seemed to be a report on the recent ‘Horde Prime situation,’ as the media was calling it. For Beach CIty was not the only place where its robots had landed; all over the world, ships were descending from the skies, their occupants disembarking to search for something nobody knew. The picture that accompanied this report, however, drew attention to an important new development.

“Uh, what’s that supposed to be?” asked Greg. “Aurora Borealis?”

“At this time of year?” said Sour Cream. “It looks more like a portal to me.”

“That’s what they’re saying it is,” Jenny told them. “And get this: it isn’t even the first one to show up. Apparently, these things have been showing up all over the place. Some scientists even think they aren’t limited to Earth. And the robots are just pouring through ‘em. Nobody knows where they lead.”

“Do we even need to ask?” said Buck.

“Wherever those robots are going,” Lars said, “that’s where Steven and the others are. That’s where my crew is.” He looked up excitedly at the others. “This could be our chance to bring them home.”

“You don’t mean we should go in there, do you?” said Priyanka. “We don’t even know what to expect!”

“ _ I _ do,” Lars said. “I’m the only person here who’s been to Etheria before. I may not know it too well, but I should be familiar enough with it to get us to Brightmoon...that’s the Rebellion’s base,” he added, seeing everyone’s confused looks.

“Lars, that’s a really noble thought,” said Greg, “but I don’t know if it’s such a good idea. I want Steven back as much as anybody, but...none of us are really fighters like the Crystal Gems are.”

“Sadie is!” Lars pointed out emphatically. “Remember back when the Horde invaded Beach City? She was right there, fighting along with the princesses!”

“He has a point,” the young woman said. “But even still...going to Etheria might not be the best idea.”

Lars sighed. “Look, everyone, I know sitting around and doing nothing while we wait for our problems to go away is tempting. Heck, I did that for most of my life until I ended up in space. But there’s a point eventually when ignoring the problem doesn’t help. If Steven isn’t back by this point, who’s to say he isn’t in trouble? Shouldn’t we at least try? And that’s not even mentioning this whole Horde Prime nonsense…”

“I think we should try,” said Buck. “Whatever these robots want, it can’t be good. Somebody has to do something, and since the Gems are gone, why not us?”

“We should probably think of a way to get past them first, though. Right, Lars?” said Sour Cream. “Uh, Lars?”

Lars had long since turned his head away from the conversation, staring towards the back of the store. “Shh. Didn’t you hear that?”

“Uh, hear what?” said Ronaldo.

“There was a crash, or something,” Lars said. “Something’s back there.

“You don’t think one of the bots got in, do you?” asked Jenny.

“We would have heard it if it was,” said Sadie. “It’s probably just that raccoon again…”

“Well, I’m going to investigate,” said Lars, walking past the counter and into the storeroom. “If I’m not back in five minutes, the raccoon ate me.”

“Hang on there, don’t just run off on your own,” said Greg. “With these robots walking around, who knows what could be going on?” He followed Lars into the back. When he got there, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Lars was still looking around for whatever could have made the sound.

“I know I heard something,” said the pink youth. “And it was definitely from back here.”

“Well, none of the rest of us heard anything,” Greg said. “Maybe you just imagined it. This is a pretty stressful time, after a--”

A sudden rattling from the ceiling startled both of them. They jumped back, both staring at the location of the noise.

“Did you hear  _ that _ one?” said Lars.

“Yeah, that one I did,” said Greg. “That must be one big raccoon!”

More rattling and clattering was heard, growing faster and louder. Cracks appeared on the ceiling, prompting both men to back away. With one final bang, a greyish shape suddenly fell through the ceiling with a loud crash. The cybertroop was still for a moment, before slowly making its way up.

“What the!?” said Lars. “What was that doing in there!?”

“Man, whatever these things are looking for, they’re taking it to the next level!”

Having heard the crash, Sadie, Ronaldo, and Jenny ran back into the storeroom. “Did you find the--woah!” said Sadie, surprised by the sudden appearance of the robot.

The cybertroop got to its feet, and began to scan its surroundings. “Okay, everybody stay still,” whispered Jenny, urging everyone to press up against the wall. “If we don’t get in its way, maybe it won’t attack us.”

The automaton largely stood in place, scanning in a circle around the small room. When it reached the people, it seemed to pass by them completely. That is, however, until it spoke.

“Citizens, stay in your homes,” it said.

Nobody was sure how to react. Was this unit malfunctioning or something? That would explain why it was in the air ducts. “But we  _ are _ !” said Ronaldo.

“Citizens, stay in your homes,” it repeated. “Do not interfere with search efforts.”

“Interfere how?” said Greg quietly. “Does it want us to be literally in our homes?”

“I don’t think it should matter!” said Sadie.

“Citizens, please comply,” said the robot. “This is your final warning.”

“What do we do now!?” said Jenny.

“I don’t know! I’m not good in these high-stress situations!” said Ronaldo. “Quick, somebody get me a weapon!”

Sadie darted to the side. Just as she did so, the robots hands shifted to reveal twin blasters sheathed within its arms. “You had been warned. Engaging termination protoc--.”

Mere moments before the bot could fire, a heavy box filled with silverware collided with its side. “Come on, let’s get out of here!” yelled Sadie, who had thrown the box. As the robot was quickly recovering, everyone immediately did so, barricading the door with a chair behind them.

“What was that? What happened?” said Sour Cream. “We heard a loud noise, but then--”

“No time, we have to go, now!” said Sadie.

“What? Please, somebody tell me what’s going on!” cried Priyanka.

Her request was answered when the robot smashed its way through the barred door. “Robot!” Greg shouted helpfully.

“Citizens, stay in your homes,” said the robot, aiming its blasters at the humans. “Please comply. This is your final warning. Engaging termination protocol.”

As the blasters began to glow, a shot rang out. The glass from the robot’s visor was shattered, and wiring flew out the back of its head. It stumbled back from the impact, staggering to the side.

Doug held a pistol tight in his grip. When the robot stood up to aim once more, he let several more shots fly. The bot shuddered, before finally falling to the floor against the barrage.

“Woah, woah, woah!” said Lars. “You have a gun!? I mean, I’m glad, but...have you always had that?”

“Yeah. Brought it from work,” Doug said. “You never know, right?”

“He does this all the time,” said Priyanka wearily.

“Okay, that settles it,” said Greg. “We can’t stay here anymore. We have to leave. Let’s sneak over to It’s a Wash, and--”

“Don’t look now,” said Lars, “but I think his friends aren’t too happy we blasted him!”

Outside the front of the Big Donut, more of the cybertroops were gathering. Their optics were focused on those within, and they didn’t look pleased. “Alright, everyone out the back!” said Sadie, ushering everybody away from the front doors.

As they ran out the back door, they could hear the robots entering the building. Worse still, however, were the robots out on the street ahead of them.

“We’re surrounded!” said Ronaldo. “What do we do now!?”

“Citizens, please comply,” the nearest bot said. They all continued to march closer, their blasters warming up.

Lars watched as they came closer. Everyone around him, as well as himself, was at a loss for what to do. A growing feeling of helplessness was welling up within him, seeing his friends put in danger like this. It was then that he did the only thing he could think of: yell. “Get AWAY!” Nobody, least of all Lars, expected the result.

A powerful wave of pink energy was created by Lars’ voice. The shockwave coursed through the air, shattering the robots apart as it tore through them. Electricity crackled as everyone sat in stunned silence at this outburst.

“What...the heck...what that?” said Ronaldo.

“There, uh...seems to be some side-effects to my condition,” said Lars, looking down at himself. “And I thought the hair portal thing was weird...”

“That was  _ amazing _ .” Ronaldo added.

However, there was no time to celebrate. Metal thuds filled the air once more as reinforcements arrived. A whole platoon of robots were marching towards them.

“Come on, let’s get moving!” said Priyanka, taking Doug by the arm. Everyone ran down towards safety--except Lars.

“Lars, come on, we have to go!” said Sadie.

“I can’t,” he said. “If they find you again, they’ll end it. I have to hold them off.”

“You can’t!” said Sadie. “Lars, I already lost you once, I can’t lose you again!”

“Don’t worry, you won’t,” said Lars. “If I can keep up with Emerald, these guys are no sweat!” The two of them clasped hands. “And once I go to Etheria and rescue Steven, I’ll introduce you to the off-colors!”

“Lars…” Sadie slowly shied away. “Just be careful. Okay?”

“You know it,” he said. Reluctantly, the pair turned away from one another. As Sadie ran down to join the others, Lars faced the approaching robots. “Alright, you tin cans--let’s dance!”

As Sadie met up with the others, she could hear Lars shouting behind her. His cries sounded like ones of triumph, so at least she knew he was safe, at least for now.

“Where’s Lars?” said Jenny.

“He...he’s staying there,” said Sadie. “He’s fighting them to protect us.”

“What?” said Greg. “He can’t just…” He trailed off. “There’s no convincing him to come back, is there?”

“Probably not,” said Sadie. “He’s going to try and find one of those portals, and go after Steven.”

“Then I guess all we can do is wish him luck,” said Sour Cream.

Ronaldo was looking out towards main street, his eyes narrowed. “Hey, Sadie?” he asked. “Do you still have that collapsible staff you got from him?”


	7. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora goes to Light Hope to seek help.

Chapter Seven: Answers

_ _ _

Outpost A-117. A Homeworld weapons-building site. It had recently been raided by an unknown force, who made off with several cannons before vanishing. By the time the Gems positioned were able to send out a distress beacon, the invaders had disappeared. The beacon was responded to by the nearest agent of Homeworld, who happened to be patrolling the area aboard the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ .

“I’m so glad you got here when you did, Emerald!” said a Peridot, trying to keep up with the larger Gem as she walked down a corridor towards the main factory.

“Mm, yes,” said Emerald. “You’re just lucky I wasn’t chasing after Lars. I lost his signal months ago, and I’ve been searching for him ever since!”

“Um…” The Peridot didn’t know who or what a ‘Lars’ was, or why Emerald was chasing one, but what she did know was that she could really use Emerald’s help at this moment. “Well, anyway, let me show you the damages.”

The Peridot opened up the door into the main hall, where the thefts had taken place. “It all happened so fast,” she recalled as Emerald surveyed the damages. “Everything was going so well, and then this huge mining vessel just came out of hyperspace! We didn’t think anything of it at first, until a bunch of Gems poured out and started raiding the place! Before we knew it, they had made off with several cannons, and taken them back to their ship! The next thing we knew, they sped off!”

“I see,” said Emerald, surveying the factory. “And you’re sure it was Gems that did this?”

“As opposed to those robots? I’m certain,” said the Peridot. “But they weren’t...normal. They were all sorts of fusions, and off-colors, and what have you!”

Emerald took notice of this, her head immediately snapping to face the Peridot. “Off-colors, you said? Off colors did this?” The smaller Gem nodded, startled by her sudden enthusiasm. “In that case...I think this just became a bit more personal. What direction did you say they went?”

“Um, it was hard to say,” said the Peridot. “But we talked about it, and with the direction they sped off in, they were either heading towards Galaxy-12 of Galaxy-18.

“Hmm...why there?” Emerald wondered aloud. “Nothing in Galaxy-12 but a few isolated outposts. And all that’s in Galaxy-18 is…” Hey eyes widened. “...Earth.” She immediately turned around, returning to the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ .

“Where are you going?” the Peridot cried after her.

“To catch these thieves of yours!” Emerald called back. “Lars of the Stars, you brilliant organic...I’ve finally got you!”

_ _ _

Adora looked over the landscape as she flew above it on the back of her flying steed, Swift Wind. Tell-tale signs of destruction dotted the landscape, no doubt caused by the robots. Or the Horde: looking closer, Adora could see the remains of a few Horde tanks and bots scattered among the craters. Were they fighting the robots? Adora couldn’t believe it if they were still continuing their campaign of conquest, even with this planetwide attack.

“Man, this looks pretty bad,” said Swift Wind. “I never thought I’d say this, but with those killer robots running around all over the place, I’m starting to regret setting my brethren free…”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Adora assured him. “Unless you attack first, they only seem dangerous if you’re a Gem. But since a bunch of our friends are Gems, we need to see what Light Hope knows about them.”

“Not to discourage you, but she wasn’t exactly helpful when you asked her about Gems,” Swift Wind reminded her. “Come to think of it, she hasn’t told you anything about your duties as She-Ra, or about Mara, or...anything, really.”

Adora looked like she wanted to protest, but she sighed instead. “I know. But vague or not, she’s the only one who knows anything about what it’s like being She-Ra.”

“What about that Steven kid?” Swift Wind said. “I mean...not She-Ra specifically, but the two of you have a lot in common, what with this whole ‘chosen one’ thing.”

“I guess,” said Adora. “But he’s just a kid. I don’t want to put any more pressure on him than he already has.”

Before long, the two arrived at the Beacon, the very same place where Adora had first met Light Hope. Heck, it wasn’t far from here where she had first met Glimmer and Bow. This crystalline castle held an importance on Etheria, not just She-Ra. Adora disembarked from her ally, carrying a satchel over her shoulder as she descended into the ancient structure.

As Adora walked through the darkened halls, she reflected on how not long ago, this location had been hostile to her and her friends. Before she had met Light Hope, the Beacon had almost claimed her life on two separate occasions. Once when she had come here with Bow and Glimmer, and once with Catra. Catra...Adora wondered how she was doing. She hadn’t seen her in a while; she hoped she was okay. Soon enough, she reached the main room, lit up in a cool blue. The form of Light Hope materialized upon the arrival of the She-Ra.

“Greetings, She-Ra Adora,” Light Hope said. “It is good to see you. You have not come here in quite some time.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy,” said Adora.

“I imagine so,” said Light Hope. “I detected a massive surge of dark magic some time ago. And recently, I have detected the arrival of another Great Computer to Etheria. Is this why you have been busy?”

“Yeah,” Adora said. “First Skeletor tried to take over, and now these robots are--wait, great  _ what _ ?”

“Several days after the dark magic had dissipated, I detected a power signature that could only be that of a Great Computer.”

“Uh...am I supposed to know what that is?” said Adora.

“The Great Computers are extremely powerful artificial intelligences created by the First Ones,” Light Hope explained. “Individually, they were designed for different purposes, but each one has enough influence to potentially have control over an entire planet’s worth of technology, possibly more. I am the Great Computer given control over Etheria.”

“So, you have access to all the First Ones tech all over Etheria?” asked Adora. “So, no offense, but why haven’t you just swarmed the Horde with elementals at this point, or something?”

“Unfortunately, my control over Etheria’s subsystems was damaged when Mara thrust us into Despondos,” Light Hope said. “That is why I was forced to wait for the next She-Ra. You are the only one who can save Etheria.”

Adora preferred not to think about the tremendous weight on her shoulders right now. Instead, she walked closer to Light Hope, removing the object in her satchel. “So, this is from the things that have been attacking Etheria,” she said, holding out the damaged head of a cybertroop. “I was wondering if you could tell us what it is.”

Light Hope looked at the object. “I do not recognize it,” she said. “I will have to interface with it. Place it on the pedestal so I may do so.” The pedestal in question was raised up in the center of the room, where Adora walked over and placed the head. Glowing blue light flowed around and through the object.

“So, what is it?” Adora asked when the light ceased. “Is it being controlled by the Great Computer you mentioned?”

“Scan completed,” Light Hope reported. “According to this data...this is a second-generation Horde cybertroop. It is controlled by Horde Prime.”

“Horde Prime,” said Adora, beginning to realize how grave the situation was.

“Yes,” said Light Hope. “The last of the Great Computers, created before Eternia was taken, with the express purpose of eliminating Gemkind.”

“But why is it attacking Etheria?” Adora asked. “Shouldn’t it be going after Homeworld?”

“Horde Prime has detected the latent power present in Etheria, and has sent its forces here to acquire it to assist it on its mission. Its ultimate goal, aside from the extermination of Gemkind, is to eliminate the Great Computer known as White Diamond.”

“...How many Great Computers  _ are _ there?” asked Adora.”

“In Eternia’s golden age, there were dozens, nearing a hundred,” said Light Hope. “In the present day, only four remain: Horde Prime, White Diamond, [ _ data classified _ ], and myself.”

“Alright. So how are we supposed to defeat it?” said Adora.

“Unlike most other Great Computers, Horde Prime does not have a centralized power source or intelligence center,” Light Hope reported. “Its influence is spread out equally over all machines under its control. Therefore, I cannot be defeated.”

Adora did a double take. “What was that?”

“Sorry. I am not sure what came over me,” said Light Hope. “But because Horde Prime has no control unit, the only way to dest--dr--destroy it is to--destroy--” Light Hope’s body began to flicker violently as her voice glitched.

“Light Hope!” cried Adora. “What’s happening!?”

Reddish-orange glowing lines began to spread across Light Hope’s form. “Unauthorized access detected,” she said. “Antivirus programs failing. Subsystems shutting down. Adora...run.”  
Before Adora’s eyes, Light Hope’s holographic body was torn asunder. Fractals of light were thrown across the room as a new shape sat in her place. A pair of wings, the exact symbol of the Horde. “System deleted,” came the voice of Horde Prime. “Commencing elimination of superfluous units.”

Adora had no time to mourn. Her friend, and closest thing to a mentor she had, had just been destroyed, but she was about to be next. With a familiar chittering, the room was soon filled with spiders. As Light Hope normally controlled them, there was no doubt in Adora’s mind that Horde Prime now controlled the mechanical arachnids.

While she knew She-Ra would easily be a match for the approaching spiders, Adora’s mind was too clouded to transform, or even consider it an option. All she could think to do was make a break for it, sprinting through the hallways back to the entrance, leaving the resting place of Light Hope behind her.

As she ran, Horde Prime’s voice sounded out through the facility. “Subsystems activating. Control over Etheria: ten percent.” More of the spiders tried to block her path, which she deftly avoided, eventually reaching daylight.

“Woah! You’re in a hurry,” said Swift Wind. “What’s the matter?”

“No time,” said Adora, hopping onto his back. “We have to go, now.”

“Alright, whatever you say!” said Swift Wind. He spread his wings and took to the skies back to Brightmoon.

_ _ _

Adora didn’t say a word on the flight back, no matter how much Swift Wind tried to coax it out of her. By the time they returned to the castle, she was exhausted. She hadn’t felt this tired in so long; since she had first found the Sword, as a matter of fact.

Glimmer, Bow, and Steven ran over to Adora when she landed, all wearing looks of concern. “Adora, what happened, you look awful!” said Glimmer. “Were you attacked?”

“Light Hope,” Adora said quietly. “It...killed her.”

“What!? Who did?” said Steven.

“Horde Prime,” Adora said. “She was scanning the destroyed robot, and it...it took her over from the inside. She’s gone.”

“Oh, Adora,” Glimmer said, placing an arm around her. “I’m sorry.”

“So, what happened?” said Bow. “Are you alright, at least?”

“I’m fine,” Adora said. “But when it killed her, Horde Prime took her place. It has access to all of her abilities now. It’s trying to take control of all of Etheria.”


	8. Age of Prime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes (and villains) adjust to a Horde Prime-controlled world. Most of them aren't letting it take over without a fight.

Chapter Eight: Age of Prime

\- - -

Not every galaxy under Homeworld’s rule was teeming with planets ripe for colonization. In Galaxy-12, only a few outposts dotted the stars, existing only as a symbol of Gemkind’s dominion. Isolated as they were, they were still Gem settlements; this meant that Horde Prime was required to destroy them. For even a single Gem to remain alive was to risk the species coming back from the brink.

The workers stationed at Outpost R-297 were caught off-guard when the Horde Prime’s forces attacked. There were no soldiers or guards present, as the outpost was deemed relatively unimportant, and not worth wasting resources on. Who would attack it, anyway? But as the cybertroops carved a path through the defenseless Gems, something even more unexpected happened: out of the blue (or rather, black), a tremendous ship appeared. Recognizable as a mining vessel, the large ship nevertheless had several cannons and other weaponry grafted onto its hull.

Stranger still was the manner of Gems that came out of the ship. Much like the haphazard nature of the vessel they were aboard, there seemed to be no structure to the forces that emerged. Fusions, over- and under-cooked Gems, and Gems of purely diplomatic castes likewise rushed to the outpost’s aid. The workers present wondered why these off-colors were helping them, let alone why they were here at all, but given the circumstances, they weren’t going to complain!

It was only a brief skirmish. Horde Prime wasn’t about to waste its numbers on a remote location like this, so the robots were quickly overpowered. And then, one the battle was won, the off-colors vanished. They returned to their ship as quickly as they had arrived, speeding off into the aether.

To just about everyone on Homeworld and its territories, off-colors were dangerous, aberrant beings to be feared. And yet here was an army of Gems of that very descriptor, fighting to protect rather than destroy. Hushed conversations were had among the Peridots and Hematites not long after this event; were off-colors really what the Diamonds said they were? What else were the Diamonds hiding?

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the ship celebrated another successful mission. Horde Prime threatened all of Gemkind, and though Hessonite and her brethren (sistren?) opposed Homeworld, they still wished for freedom for their people.

“Excellent work, everyone!” Exclaimed Pyrope. “Maybe now those horrid machines will think twice about tangling with Gems!”

“Unlikely,” Demantoid said. “Nevertheless, our newfound weaponry will no doubt prove useful in fending off further attacks.”

“I agree,” said Hessonite. “If we want Homeworld to be free from the Diamonds, then we’ll have to free it from Horde Prime first! And who knows, maybe the Diamonds will willingly give up control once they realize what free Gems like us can do?”

“And who knows, maybe they’ll put  _ us _ in charge!” said Pyrope. She giggled enthusiastically at the prospect. “Just think: ‘the lovely Pyrope--and friends--made Homeworld’s newest queens!’”

A tiny Ruby tugged at Pyrope’s dress. “Would that include me?”

“Now, now,” Pyrope said. “I’m not sure the queen lifestyle is for you, little one.”

“Can I be a countess, then? Or, no, how about a duchess?”

“I would not get your hopes up,” said Pyrope. “Horde Prime’s forces are proving just as devastating to renegade tribes of off-colors as they are to Homeworld territories. If the Diamonds truly are to abdicate power, they will need more than our efforts to convince them.”

“Hmm. Even so, we need to do our part to eliminate this threat,” said Hessonite. “Even if we can’t defeat it, we should keep fighting to protect the Gems who can’t protect themselves. It’s what Steven would do.”

“This Steven sounds like quite a hero!” said Pyrope. “If even half of what you say about him is true, I would love to meet him in person!”

Me too!” her Ruby companion added.

“He truly is one-of-a-kind,” said Hessonite. She looked around thoughtfully at the control room’s interior. “You know...we really ought to give this ship a name. It’s more than just an old mining vessel now, it deserves one!”

“You are the captain,” said Demantoid. “If anyone is qualified to name it, it is you.”

Hessonite was silent for a moment, deep in thought. Naming your ship,your new home, wasn’t something you could just do on a dime. After some internal deliberation, it came to her: “The  _ Crystallon _ .”

“Huh. I like it!” said the Ruby.

_ _ _

“Fascinating!” exclaimed Entrapta as she worked.

After much ado, Entrapta had eventually convinced Hordak to convince Horde Prime to allow her access to one of its cybertroops. By studying how it functioned, she may be able to make improvements to the Horde’s bots. Of course, with Horde Prime on their side, something like that might not even be needed!

In the middle of disassembling the cybertroop, Entrapta pulled out her recorder. “Now, HP told me that it’s cybertroops were based on my Multi-Bot. Side note: I can’t articulate how excited I was when it told me! For such an ancient piece of First Ones engineering to base its creations on something of  _ my _ design! Anyways, the similarities may be obvious at a glance, but the cybertroops seem to be much more advanced than their outward appearance would suggest. They are both distinct from, and yet simultaneously identical to, First Ones robotics. To me, this suggests a divide amongst the First Ones occurred at some point: those who preferred using ‘magical’ technology, and those who embraced the more traditional tech.”

She continued to examine the bot. “In fact, the more I study the machine’s structure, the more familiar I find it is to Multi-Bot! It even has the access port on its lower back I put in for programming updates! I--oh, hello Scorpia!”

As quietly as a giant like her could muster, Scorpia had snuck into the laboratory. “Oh, Entrapta. I, uh, didn’t know you were in here,” she lied. Given her silence, even Entrapta could tell this was a lie. “You, uh, working on something in here?”

“If I was Catra, I would probably have a sarcastic quip to respond to that with,” Entrapta said, setting her recorder down. “But since I’m not, I don’t. Speaking of which, how is Catra?”

“Shh, not so loud!” Scorpia whispered, glancing over her shoulder. “Nobody but us is supposed to know about you-know-who bunking with me!”

“Oh, right,” said Entrapta. “Let me rephrase that: So, how is you-know-who?”

“She’s alright,” said Scorpia, her cheerful demeanor returning. “Mopey, but that’s par for the course nowadays.” An awkward silence filled the room for a few seconds. “So...on an unrelated note, where does Hordak keep that ship we seized from the rebels?”

“In the garage,” answered Entrapta. “You know, the big one. The  _ big _ one. They’re still working on repairs. Hordak says we could get it flying again pretty soon. Why?”

“Ah, just curious,” Scorpia said, trying to sound casual. “Anyways, I’m like for a Force Captain meeting, uh, thingy, so I really should be going. Nice talking with you!” With a friendly wave, Scorpia departed from the room.

“Okay, see you later!” said Entrapta, waving back. “What a gem of a gal! Well, not like...you know what I mean. ...Who am I talking to?”

Trying her best to act casual, Scorpia strolled through the hallways of the Fright Zone, passing by several soldiers and cybertroops as she did, towards the garage Entrapta mentioned. After Hordak’s deal with it was bartered, the Fright Zone was filled with Horde Prime’s forces. All of which were, according to Hordak, equally Horde Prime itself. Something about a hive mind, but Scorpia didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

When she reached the balcony overlooking the repair efforts on the  _ Sun Incinerator _ , Scorpia found that she wasn’t alone. A Horde trooper of the non-robotic variety stood there as well, staring through the window at the spaceship below. Scorpia stood beside them, doing her best to look casual. “So...pretty cool ship, right?”

“It’s  _ me _ ,” the trooper said, in a slightly annoyed voice that Scorpia could never mistake.

“Catra!?” she said. “What are you doing out here? And how did you get yourself in that armor?”

Catra removed her helmet, rubbing her ears. “It wasn’t easy,” she said. “And my tail is killing me. But did Entrapta say when it should be finished?”

“Not specifically,” Scorpia replied. “Pretty soon, though.”

Catra sighed in irritation. “Then I guess we’ll be leaving ‘pretty soon.’”

_ _ _

“I just...I can’t believe she’s gone,” said Adora. “What am I supposed to do now?”

She and Steven sat on the balcony, overlooking the grassy plains beyond Brightmoon. “I’m sorry, I-I wish I knew what that was like,” Steven said. “I’ve never really lost anyone close to me, at least not permanently.”

“It isn’t your fault,” said Adora. She sighed. “I just wish I knew what Horde Prime was planning next. Then we could stop it, and Light Hope’s death wouldn’t be in vain.”

“So...Light Hope was built by the First Ones, right?” said Steven. “And she was a hologram? Well, the Gems are holograms built by the First Ones, too. Maybe she isn’t really dead?”

“I guess it’s possible,” said Adora. “But it sure feels like she is.”

Steven placed a hand over his gemstone. “I may not know what it’s like to lose someone...but I know what it’s like not to have someone. But my mom gave her life so that I could live. I guess, since she helped you escape...Light Hope did the same?”

The thought made Adora smile, if only a little bit. “I hope you’re right,” she said.

“About Light Hope still being alive, or about her giving her life for you?”

“Both,” said Adora. “Now come on.” She picked up her sword, looking at her reflection in the blade. She pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Where are we going?” asked Steven.

“To the war room,” said Adora. “Horde Prime’s taken too much of our world. It’s time we fought back.”


	9. The War Escalates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes, having vowed to fight back against Horde Prime's incursion, clear a village of cybertroop presence.

Chapter Nine: The War Escalates

_ _ _

“As far as I can tell,” Peridot said, “Horde Prime’s movement patterns indicate it seems to be looking for something. Most likely, it’s searching for Gems, but I can’t tell for sure.”

“I see,” said Angella. “And what would be the best course of action to remove Horde Prime from Etheria?”

“Horde Prime can’t be destroyed traditionally,” said Garnet. “It’s an intelligence, spread throughout each one of its machines. To destroy it, we would have to destroy every single one of them across the universe, which would be impossible.”

“Uh, how do you know that?” asked Peridot quizzically.

“The only futures I see where we win are the ones where we disable every last robot,” said Garnet. “And there aren’t a whole lot of those futures.”

“But we at least know that it’s possible,” said Angella. “How can we do that?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t see the specifics. I’d have to know more about how Horde Prime works to figure that out.”

“I can’t help you there,” said Peridot. “I had a head from one of its robots, but Adora stole it. Unless we can get another one, I...hold on, I just had a brilliant idea!”

Wasting no time, Peridot immediately sprinted out of the room, leaving Garnet and the queen behind. She made her way through the castle, before bursting into the room where Adora, Steven, and the others resided. Most of them were startled by her sudden arrival.

“Steven! Adora! I have a mission for you!”

_ _ _

“Citizens. The Princesses have betrayed us.” The booming voice of Horde Prime reverberated throughout the small village. “They have chosen to ally themselves with the Gems. Per the orders of Eternian High Command, I must eliminate them alongside Gemkind. If you have any information as to their whereabouts, you will come forward immediately.”

Though Horde Prime had not proven hostile to the villagers, it had been very adamant that they stay out of its way. Its requests had been cryptic as well. None of them knew what these ‘Gems’ it spoke of where. But now, claiming the Princess Alliance had allied with them? What exactly did it mean? And while it didn’t appear angry, Horde Prime did seem to be growing more impatient, at least as impatient as an emotionless machine could grow; it was becoming less and less tolerant of villagers who strayed from beyond their buildings. Hopefully, help would arrive soon.

As the cybertroops continued to patrol the area, the pathway of one of them was suddenly diverted. An object flew past, too quick to be seen, before embedding in a tree trunk several feet away. The robot walked over to investigate. Scans revealed the object to be an innocuous arrow of Etherian design. By coming closer, Horde Prime would be able to determine its trajectory, and discover where it was fired from--

The arrow exploded, destroying the cybertroop instantly. The others were immediately drawn towards this area. “Now!” shouted Bow.

The heroes emerged from their hiding places around the village, catching the machines off-guard. Before the bots could fire, the Crystal Gems and Best Friend Squad had nearly halved their numbers.

“Whoo! Come get some!” shouted Bismuth, having sliced two robots clean in two. “Hey, Pearl, watch your six!”

Without even looking, Pearl thrust her spear through the optic of a cybertroop approaching behind her. “I’ve got my six covered!”

“Careful with these guys, guys!” said Steven, holding up his shield to block a barrage of laser blasts. “We need to save one of them to bring back to Peridot!”

“Yeah, _one_!” said Glimmer. She teleported up to the robots firing at Steven, blinded them with a flash of light, and followed up by smashing through their armor with her staff. “There’s plenty here!”

“Yeah, but not for long!” said Amethyst. She had bound a bot with her whip, and was using it as a flail to destroy its fellows.

“Relax, I’ve got you covered!” said Adora. In her towering She-Ra form, she barrelled through a battalion of the cybertroops, their blasters glancing off her armor. With a swing of her sword, she severed the head of one, picking it up off the ground and tossing it to Garnet. “Here, you get that back to Peridot!”

Garnet nodded, placing the robotic appendage under one arm. As she made to flee the scene, she, and the others, were surprised when a sudden rumbling began to shake the ground.

“Great, _now_ what?” said Bismuth. “Did we really need any more surprises?”

Glimmer was the first to see just what this new ‘surprise’ was. “Don’t look now...but I think Horde Prime just got some reinforcements. Well, _a_ reinforcement. A very big reinforcement.”

Big it was indeed. Now that it had taken over Light Hope’s place as the Great Computer of Etheria, Horde Prime gained access to many of the planet’s resources. Working alongside Hordak, it had also gained access to the factory where Horde bots were made. In addition to making more cybertroops, it had deigned to begin production on a much more powerful weapon: the cybertank.

An absolute beast of a machine, a cybertank stood about twenty to twenty-five feet in height. Its body had a similar structure to that of the cybertroops, but its arms had been replaced with large rotary cannons. Likewise, its head resembles a large, singular cannon, and its legs were replaced with tank treads, hence its name.

This particular cybertank rumbled through the trees, knocking many out of the way in the process. It spoke: “Gems detected. Princesses detected.” Its voice was much deeper and more booming than that of the cybertroops. “Engaging termination protocol.” Its rotary cannons began to spin.

“Everybody hide, now!” shouted Garnet. They all hit the deck as the cybertank opened fire. A veritable stream of lasers gushed from each cannon, drowning the immediate area in burn marks and smoldering metal. Everything not large enough to remain standing was sliced apart by the barrage. Upon realizing that it had not demolished any of its targets, the cybertank ceased fire, and began scanning for more targets.

“What is that thing!?” Bow asked in a frantic whisper.

“Bad news is what it is,” Adora said. “Anyone have any brilliant ideas?”

“Not unless you count ‘keep whalin’ on it ‘till it dies’ as brilliant,” said Amethyst.

“I certainly don’t,” Pearl said.

“But hey, you work with what ya got,” Adora said. “Somebody get that thing’s attention, I’ll see if I can disable the treads!”

“I’ll do it,” said Bow. “I’m not a princess _or_ a Gem, so it probably won’t shoot at me. Wish me luck!”

“Just be careful!” Glimmer shouted after Bow as he emerged from cover. He ran up to the massive tank, waving his arms to get its attention. Meanwhile, Adora snuck around beside it.

“Hey! Horde Prime! Down here!” Bow yelled.

The metal giant focused on the tiny man. “Princess detected,” it said.

“Oh come on!” Bow exclaimed. He made to run for cover as the cybertroop aimed its cannons at him. Before it could fire, Glimmer teleported him to safety.

“That was a close one!” Glimmer said, sounding relieved.

“Yeah,” Bow said. “But talk about guilt by association!”

With the cybertank distracted, Adora was free to sneak up on it. She swung her sword, severing the tracks on the machine’s left side. “Let’s see how tough you are when you can’t move!” she said. Before it could turn around, she made her way to its other side and severed the other treads.

The cybertank futilely tried to rev its wheels, but it was dead in the water, so to speak. With Adora out of weapon range, it selected its next target: the village itself. A few human casualties would be irrelevant in the face of destroying Eternia’s enemies. “Charging central cannon.”

A red glow started to seep from the gigantic cannon that served as the cybertank’s head. “It’s gonna shoot the village!” yelled Steven. Without hesitation, the youth ran between the threat and its target, summoning a huge shield. “Guys, help me brace!”

Garnet, Glimmer, Amethyst, and Bismuth all helped Steven hold up the shield. The cybertank fired--the energy shot exploded against the pink barrier with such a force that they were all blown back despite the strength of all those present. The shield dissipated.

“Re-acquiring targets.” The cybertank’s secondary cannons started spinning once more.

Glimmer was able to teleport Amethyst out of there in the nick of time. Garnet dropped the head she was carrying to pick up Steven and carry him to safety. Bismuth, however, took the brunt of the barrage. Sturdy as she was, it still clearly hurt. She was blasted backwards by the force, and her physical form took quite a bit of damage.

“Bismuth!” Pearl yelled.

Bismuth pulled herself up out of the rubble, brushing the dust off. She had quite a few wounds, light seeping out of them. “Urgh...I’m alright,” she said, straining. “Just tear this thing a new one for me, will you?”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” It was Adora, having climbed up atop the cybertroop. She held her sword out as she tried to balance herself against its movements.

Either the large robot didn’t notice her, or decided she wasn’t worth the effort. What it did do, however, was begin readying its primary weapon. “Recharging central cannon.”

“Recharge this!” Adora declared. She thrust the Sword of Power down into the cybertank’s back, just behind its head. She readied an attack of her own, with firing a beam from her blade. As a result, the energy going from the tank’s core to its gun was intercepted mid-fire.

The result was a spectacular explosion. A blast of red energy scattered bits of metal to the four winds. Adora, having leapt off seconds before, and shifted her sword into a shield, was unharmed. Only the cybertank’s head remained, landing on the ground in front of the others. “And here I thought the precursor to the Horde would have access to better robots!” said Adora once she landed.

“Adora, that was awesome!” said Bow. “You saved everyone!”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” said Adora. “Not too shabby, eh?”

“Pretty slick moves there, blondie!” came Bismuth’s voice. She stumbled closer, still injured. She briefly flickered--a closer look by Steven revealed that a small chip ran down her gemstone.

“Bismuth, you’re cracked!” he said. “Here, let me!”

“Hold on a sec, there,” Bismuth said, blocking Steven with her arm. “You ain’t the only one who can heal people, right?”

“Yeah, but…” Steven turned around, noticing Adora. “You mean Adora?”

“Are you sure?” said Adora. “I’m not exactly a healing master like Steven is…”

“That’s why you should do it!” Said Bismuth. “Even if it doesn’t work, Steven’s right here to pick up the slack!”

“Well...I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” said Adora. She held her sword blade-up in front of her, doing her best to fill her mind with positive emotions. _Care. I have to care_. Her sword began to glow a cool blue. From the Runestone came a bright light, which enveloped Bismuth. As quickly as it had come, the light ceased.

The blue Gem looked down at herself. Not only had the crack vanished, but her physical form looked good as new. “Feelin’ pretty good!” she said. She gave Adora a light punch on the shoulder. “Not bad, blondie!”

“Th-thanks,” Adora said, blushing. “I’m just glad it worked!”

“Of course it worked!” said Steven. “You just have to believe in yourself! I know that sounds like something from one of those cat posters, but it’s true.”

With the occupation of their village over, the villagers began to come out of their hiding places. A timid-looking goatkin man walked up to them. “She-Ra, princesses...Gems, I assume...you saved us!”

“No prob,” said Amethyst. “All in a day’s work!”

“This ‘Horde Prime’ is proving to me much more of a nuisance than we first thought,” said the man. “Is there any way we can repay you?”

“We do the things we do because it’s who we are,” said Garnet. “You are not in our debt. Fight back against Horde Prime if you feel you are able. Otherwise, make sure you and your people stay safe.” The goatkin nodded profusely, thanked the lot of them once more, and returned to the village proper. “Now then…” Garnet turned her attention to the severed head of the cybertank. “Who wants to help me carry this?”

_ _ _

Horde Prime was beginning to realize what a threat these princesses could be if they put their mind to it. Back on Earth, he had finally discovered something that it believed could give it an edge in this war.

Numerous cybertroops overlooked a small mountain, or large hill. To an onlooker, this would seem to be just an ordinary land formation. With Horde Prime’s scanning technology, however, it was able to see just what this object truly was.

“Interface complete,” it said. “Running takeoff procedures."

The earth shook. Rocks rained down on all nearby cliffs. The very ground below split open, as the massive object that gave the mountain its shape emerged: It was a huge spaceship. Purple in color, it looked quite like a futuristic castle.

“Eternian colony ship online,” Horde Prime said. “Setting course for Etheria.”


	10. Shadows Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A favor is asked of Shadow Weaver.

Chapter Ten: Shadows Fall

_ _ _

Throughout Etheria, the only place Horde Prime’s influence hadn’t touched was the Crimson Waste. Most of the planet believed it to be nothing more than an expansive, uninhabited desert, which is what Horde Prime believed as well. Though a few of its ships passed overhead from time to time, they paid little mind to the vagrants and wanderers down below. And for the most part, they paid just as little mind back.

One native to the desert was more savvy, however. The reptilian shapeshifter known as Double Trouble waited patiently in the background of a trading post in the Crimson Waste’s center, unseen by the various wastelanders. They were waiting for a certain someone to arrive, so they could pass on orders from their benefactor. And soon enough, arrive she did.

Double Trouble hadn’t noticed her at first. Understandable, as they were more focused on the pavilion in front of them, rather than the wall behind them. It so happens that their shadow had lifted up from the sand and placed itself on this wall, morphing into the very shape of the one Double Trouble waited for.

“Speak,” was all this shadow said.

Though obviously startled by Shadow Weaver’s sudden appearance, Double Trouble did their best to play it off. “Ah, Weavey! Just the gal I was looking for!”

“Enough of your ramblings,” Shadow Weaver said. Even though she had only manifested as a shadow on the wall, her voice nonetheless commanded compliance in its tone. The shadow’s single eye, a solid red diamond, likewise gave the impression that she was not in the mood for jokes. “Why have you summoned me?”

“Weavey, I’m hurt!” said Double Trouble in mock sadness. “You don’t even care enough to come and see me in person!”

“How true,” said Shadow Weaver. “In fact, you’re lucky I care enough to send a messenger in my place. Don’t waste my time. What do you want?”

D.T. chuckled. “Oh, sweetie, it’s not what  _ I _ want! It’s what the boss wants. You see, ol’ Surgeon needs another favor from you. Think of it as payment for that little trinket he gifted you.”

“I see,” Shadow Weaver said. “So he sees me as his servant now, is that it?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that!” D.T. assured her. “It’s just that Surgie only reveals himself to his most trusted allies. This is just his way of proving that he can trust you. After this, I’ll take you to see him in person. You have my word.”

The dark witch was silent for a moment as she deliberated. On the one hand, she hated the idea of being anyone’s errand girl. But on the other, this crystal of Skeletor’s had greatly boosted her power; she no longer needed to recharge after a particularly difficult spell left her drained. Perhaps their interests could align after all? “Very well,” she said. “I will do him this favor, but just this once. Tell me, what is it he requires?”

“That’s what I like to hear!” said Double Trouble. “See, the Surgeon really has his heart set on this really nice, one-of-a-kind First Ones doodad up in the Etherian Highlands. If you could retrieve it for him, I’m sure he’d  _ really _ appreciate it!”

“Then he will have it,” said Shadow Weaver. “And make sure to tell him that I’m not his errand girl!”

“He knows, don’t you worry!” said D.T. “Now, this sweet little number is up high in the mountains, not far from Princess Spinnerella’s castle…”

_ _ _

Located to the far east of Etheria, the Etherian Highlands was a kingdom up high in the mountains ruled by Spinnerella. While nowhere near as cold as the Kingdom of Snows, the high winds made it quite chilly. This, coupled with its remoteness and the perilous terrain, meant that it received few visitors. Luckily, this isolation meant that very few hostile forces tried to storm it. Up until recently, that is.

While Hordak’s soldiers and Skeletor’s undead had been unwilling or unable to make it up through the perilous cliffsides, such a thing was no problem for Horde Prime’s cybertroops, who travelled by dropship. Being now led to believe that the princesses had sided with the Gems, Horde Prime was now drawn to the Runestones.

“Attention citizens,” said the metallic voice of Horde Prime. “For allying themselves with Gemkind, the princesses of Etheria have been branded as traitors. All those who would aid the princesses will likewise be labeled as traitors to Eternia, and exterminated. Stop resisting immediately.” Such words fell on deaf ears, as the people of the Etherian Highlands were not very happy with these robots not only invading their peaceful city-state, but also threatening their beloved princess. They fought back, destroying the cybertroops with whatever makeshift weapons they had at hand.

Understandably, Horde Prime had soon turned violent. The machine fulfilled his promise, firing on anyone who would dare stand up to its advance. At the urgings of Princess Spinnerella, the people would remain inside their adobe homes while she and her soldiers took care of the issue.

This was easier said than done. For each robot that her guards were able to destroy, two more seemed to appear. It didn’t help that dropships were arriving by the dozen each day.

“Princess detected. Engaging termination protocols.” Although the robots had numbers, Spinnerella was far more adept than each one. Empowered by her Runestone, the Swirlstone, she deftly battered and sliced them with her gusts of wind. The conical pink crystal, resembling a tornado, was held in place above her throne by a constant updraft that it generated. For one reason or another, the cybertroops seemed reluctant to attack this Runestone, even though it would likely depower the princess.

A Highland soldier ran in through the main entrance, passing by the destroyed husks of innumerable cybertroops. “Your majesty, more and more ships keep arriving!” she said. “We aren’t fit to hold them off any longer!”

Spinnerella hurried towards the door. “Just keep doing your best,” she said as she left the castle behind. “Keep the machines away from the citizens. I’ll try and stop their ships.”

The town just outside of the castle was almost in chaos. The robots were doing everything they could to break into the castle and eliminate the princess. Cybertroops fired on anything that moved, and cybertanks rumbled closer by the second.

Worse still, several portals to other locations in the main universe had opened up among the Highlands. Dropships poured out these gateways, overwhelming the soldiers with the sheer number of robots. But with Spinnerella now outside of her sanctum, all the cybertroops’ attention was turned to her.

Steeling herself, and slowing her breathing, Spinnerella prepared to unleash her power on those who would dare assault her home. Just as the robots were prepared to open fire, the princess thrust out her palms. A mighty wind cut through the air from behind her, so powerful that it shook the very foundations of the houses it passed. While Spinnerella remained stationary, hovering in the air as she controlled this maelstrom, the cybertroops were thrown asunder like flecks of sand, and the dropships struggled to remain aloft.

For almost thirty seconds these hurricane force winds lasted. But even after all of this, her opponents still remained. The dropships slowly levelled themselves, and the few cybertroops that had survived her initial assault picked themselves up. Worse still, a few cybertanks were approaching.

Spinnerella knew she wouldn’t last long against those behemoths if she didn’t take them out quickly. Once more, the princess steeled herself, digging her heels into the dirt. She held her arms out to one side, before quickly thrusting them to the other.

Instantly, a gigantic tornado formed around her. It tore through the town, pulling up signs and carts and smashing windows, but collateral damage was the least of their worries right now. The whirlwind also had its intended function: cybertroops were tossed around like ragdolls. Dropships were yanked out of the sky and smashed into the ground, blowing them to pieces. One of the cybertanks was even overturned.

She fought long, and she fought hard. But Spinnerella’s efforts were not enough. Eventually, she was too tired to maintain her control any longer, and the tornado dissipated. She collapsed to her knees, exhausted. A sole cybertank remained, preparing to open fire on the princess. More dropships emerged from the portals to replace the ones that she had destroyed. Spinnerella sighed. At least she had been able to protect her people. If only she had gotten to see Netossa one last time…

However, Horde Prime never got the chance to destroy her. Before the cybertank could open fire, black tendrils pierced through its chassis, tearing it apart from within. More of these tendrils extended into the sky, pulling the dropships out of the air and crushing them. Their fiery forms crashed into the ground. Some of these tendrils even wrapped around the portals that Horde Prime’s forces were coming through. The portals weren’t destroyed, but they did seem to be somewhat disrupted.

Spinnerella looked up at the one who had done this. A figure clad in a red robe could be seen off in the distance, with wisps of black smoke billowing from beneath them. It was too hard to make out any details, but a purple glow seemed to emanate from this figure’s forehead. And then, as quickly as Spinnerella had noticed them, they were gone.

Meanwhile, Shadow Weaver scoffed in disgust at the robots she had just destroyed. She had no compassion for the people of this village, but anything that would halt Horde Prime’s takeover of the world she was meant to rule pleased her. She glanced down at the object in her palm: a small, blue cylinder with First Ones writing on one side, and a strange indentation on the other. “Why could the Surgeon not have acquired this for himself?” she wondered aloud. Regardless, she disappeared into the darkness, off towards the designated rendezvous point.

Spinnerella stood up. All around her sat the devastated remains of Horde Prime’s machinations. She was unsure of who had destroyed them, but the fact of the matter was that the Etherian Highlands was safe.

Or was it? A metallic clicking noise came from behind her. Spinnerella turned around to see one last cybertroop aiming its guns at her. She held up her hand, preparing to blow it away, when…

“YAAARGH!” With a sudden yell, the robot was blasted to pieces. Startled by this noise, Spinnerella looked to where it had come from. Standing not far from the robot was a boy. Seemingly normal, though he was dressed quite oddly, and his skin and hair were pink. Speaking of hair, Spinnerella found his hairstyle quite odd as well.

“Oh, uhh, hey there!” he said. He seemed friendly enough, at least. “So, would you mind telling me where I am? I mean, I think I’m on Etheria, but I don’t...Say, do you know a kid named Steven?”

_ _ _

The Surgeon sat alone in his darkened sanctum. Well, perhaps ‘alone’ wasn’t the right word. For even when none of his minions were present, he was always surrounded by his creations. As he continued his work, the air was filled with screeching howls, deep growling, chittering, grunting, and whatever other sounds terrible monsters could make.

All of these creatures went silent when the door opened, letting in light. Down the small flight of stairs walked a lone cybertroop. It made noises as it stepped robotically towards the room’s inhabitant. “Vvvt! Vvvt! Vvvt! Target detected! Beginning organic destruction sequences!”

The Surgeon was unperturbed by this seeming invasion. “Yes, yes, we’re all very impressed by your theatrics,” he said calmly. “So, your powers allow you to take the form of machines, then. I’ll need to make a note of that.

The form of the cybertroop morphed into that of Double Trouble. “I just found that out myself!” they said. “Thought I’d try it out. Anyway, Shadow Weaver brought you a present.” They chucked the cylinder towards their boss, but he didn’t catch it. Rather, it was grabbed by another figure, likewise obscured by darkness. Spindly, this figure observed the cylinder with a gentle chittering sound, before placing it on the Surgeon’s desk.

“Just what I wanted,” he said. “She did well. I imagine she’s coming into her new powers as well?”

“Oh yes, she seemed pleased as punch with that crystal you gave her,” D.T. said. “Plus, she seemed rather excited to meet you!”

“I look forwards to seeing her in person as well,” said the Surgeon. “It’s been a while since we spoke. Once this ‘Horde Prime’ debacle is all said and done, I will arrange a meeting. From there...well, I suppose we’ll see where it goes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Surgeon guy's getting to be pretty prolific, huh? Any guesses on who he is?
> 
> I'll give you a hint: he's a canon character. But whether he's from She-Ra, Steven Universe, or the original Masters of the Universe remains to be seen!


	11. Getting Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot comes up with a plan to defeat Horde Prime.

Chapter Eleven: Getting Ahead

_ _ _

“So, you’re really starting to come into your own with that thing, huh, Adora?” said Bow.

Adora grinned as she glanced down at the blade in her hand. After successfully defending the village from Horde Prime’s assault the heroes returned to Brightmoon with their spoils. Garnet, Bismuth, and Adora herself carried the massive cannon that used to be the cybertank’s head over their shoulders. “Yeah, I guess I am,” she said. “But hey, I’m not the only one trying to figure these things out.” She looked over at Steven when she said this.

“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” said Steven, rubbing the back of his head. “Birds of a feather, you know?”

“Er...no, I don’t,” said Adora. “Is that an Earth saying?”

“What Steven means is, both of you are going through something similar,” said Garnet. “Both of you were given powers that you have little understanding of, and little time to master them in order to save your worlds.” She adjusted her glasses with her free hand. “I don’t believe in destiny, but I can’t deny that you two are two of a kind.”

“I guess so,” said Adora. “I may not be half-Gem, but the more I think about it, Steven is sort of like a younger, gentler version of me.”

“Sure. Except he’s a boy,” added Glimmer.

“Eh, who’s counting?” said Bismuth.

The rest of the walk to Brightmoon was uneventful. It wasn’t until the team made it back to just outside the castle that things started to seem out of the ordinary. For starters, the whole area was littered with destroyed cybertroops.

Pearl rushed to the front of the group to get a better look. “What happened here?” she said, the concern in her voice clear.

“Looks like they were attacked while we were gone,” said Bismuth, setting the head down. “Hello? Anyone there?” she called.

“Well, look who’s back.” The voice came from above them. Looking up, everyone saw the form of Lapis hovering above them. With a wave of her water wings, the blue Gem descended down to their level. “You missed all the action!”

“Trust me, we had plenty of action on our end!” said Amethyst.

“Speaking of action, where’s Peridot?” said Bow. “We brought her a gift.”

“Here I am!” The Gem in question emerged from just behind some shrubbery. “You should have seen this Gem!” she said, patting Lapis on the back. “These primitive robonoids tried to storm the castle, and Lazuli completely demolished them! It was a bath!”

“Uh, you mean bloodbath?” asked Glimmer.

“No, just a regular bath,” Peridot clarified. “Because of all the water. Plus, robots don’t have blood. Usually.”

“It’s a good thing Brightmoon has a lake nearby,” Lapis said.

“Yes, good thing,” said Peridot. “It would also have been a good thing if  _ someone _ had left enough of them intact so that I had something to study.”

Lapis shrugged. “I don’t really do subtle.”

“Well, at least nobody was hurt,” said Pearl.

“Yeah, except those robots!” said Peridot. “Now, where’s this gift you said you had?”

Garnet and Bismuth stepped aside to reveal the cybertank’s head. Peridot’s jaw nearly hit the floor.

_ _ _

Several hours later, after Peridot had had some time to properly study the central processes of Horde Prime’s troops, she had called for a meeting to discuss a plan she had. Present were all the Crystal Gems, and most of the Princess Alliance. Only Spinnerella was absent, off defending her kingdom from Horde attacks. Several new chairs had been added to the war table out of necessity, most of them much less fancy than the normal ones.

Queen Angella sat at her usual spot at the table. “I hope your friend knows what she’s doing,” she said to Steven.

“Oh, Peridot’s the best,” he said. “She really knows her way around machines. And she’s so helpful! Sure, she’s tried to kill me a few times, but that was before we were friends!”

Angella raised an eyebrow at this, but otherwise said nothing. After all, the Rebellion had taken in Adora. Who’s to say this wasn’t something similar?

Although Peridot wasn’t an ancient warrior, prophesied to protect the planet. As far as Angella knew, anyway.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to the hallway just outside the room as a loud unpleasant scraping noise filled the air. The doors opened to reveal Peridot, dragging the severed head of the cybertank all on her own. Even with her powers over magnetism, this still took quite a bit of effort.

“Um, Peridot? Do you need some help?” asked Connie.

“No! Stay there, I’ve got it!” she said, straining. Everybody sat in an awkward silence, aside from the sounds of scraping metal and Peridot’s grunts of exertion. By the time she had dragged the cannon-shaped head to the front of the room, she looked ready to pass out.

“Okay, can somebody fill me in on what’s happening here?” said Swift Wind. “Why did she just drag a huge gun in here? I mean, I know huge guns are cool, but wouldn’t it make more sense for that to be  _ outside _ the castle?”

“Hold your horses,” said Steven, with a barely-suppressed grin. “She’ll explain everything in a minute.”

Swift Wind glared at him. “You’ve been waiting to say that since we met, haven’t you?”

Peridot soon got her composure, climbing atop the cannon. “Now...I suppose all of you are wondering what my plan is. Correct?”

“Yes, indeed,” said Pefuma. “Especially considering you just told us to sit down, because it was important. And explained nothing beyond that.”

“Well, it  _ is _ important!” Peridot said. “Okay: Horde Prime. What do we do about it?”

“I thought you said you had a plan,” said Angella. “I’m sure you worked very hard on this presentation, but can we please cut to the chase?”

“Right, right, will do,” Peridot said. “So, in my research, I found that Horde Prime does not use any sort of central intelligence unit. So, no leader,” she said. “It is equal parts every single one of it’s machines. There will be no way to destroy it, so long as one cybertroop exists.”

“Okay, so let’s just smash ‘em all!” said Frosta.

“As if it would be that easy. If what I found from studying this destroyed unit’s cranial processor is true, Horde Prime  _ does _ exist. Just not as hardware. It is an entity of pure software.”

“So, an A.I., then,” said Connie.

“I’m not aware what the official Earth term is, but okay,” Peridot said. “Regardless, the only way to stop an entity like this is to create something that can attack it on its home turf. A virus, for instance.”

“And you think you can make one strong enough to take it down?” asked Bismuth.

“Of course I can,” said Peridot. “This technology is ancient, but it is actually very similar to Gem tech. If I have enough time, I believe I can find a way to program a virus to attack its programming. Then all we need to do is upload it to an active robot, and shut Horde Prime down for good!”

“Excellent,” said Angella. “Horde Prime has taken too many territories already. It must be stopped before it can take any more.”

“It has?” said Glimmer. “That’s the first I’ve heard of this. I thought it was still being held back.”

“It is, from the major kingdoms,” said Angella. “But smaller villages are being overrun, especially because Horde Prime has allied itself with the Horde.”

“Big surprise there,” said Mermista.

“In that case, I should get started,” said Peridot, hopping off of her perch. “Meeting adjourned. You may be excused.”

“That was  _ it _ ?” said Amethyst. “You could’ve just told us all that!”

“Don’t question my methods,” said Peridot. Once more, she began trying to pull the head with her metal powers. More scraping sounds filled the room, much to everyone’s irritation. Peridot hadn’t even gotten a quarter of the way to the door when it suddenly lifted itself up off the ground. Peridot looked down at her hands, seemingly questioning her own strength.

Netossa, however, recognized the winds keeping the gigantic hunk of steel aloft. “Took you long enough!” she said, turning to their source.

“Hello, everyone!” said the previously unseen Spinnerella. “Sorry I took so long to get here, but the Etherian Highlands were under attack. I couldn’t just leave my kingdom unguarded!”

“Nor would we expect you to,” said Angella. “I take it you fought them off?”

“Yes, but not alone,” she said. “I’m not sure who it was, but someone else destroyed many of the robots. Oh, and there’s someone who I think the Crystal Gems would like to see!”

Cued by the princess’ words, a second person entered the room. “Uh...hey guys!” said Lars.

“Lars!” Steven said, jumping up from his seat. He ran over to give him a hug, which was returned.

“Woah, slow down there!” said Lars. “I think somebody missed me!”

“Yeah, but I’m not the only one,” said Steven. “Lars, we need to get you to Mystacor, stat!”

“Um...Mysta-what?”

“That’s where the off-colors are staying,” said Connie.

“Well, how soon can we leave?” said Lars, excited to see his old crew after all this time.

“Whenever, I guess,” Steven said. “I don’t think we had any plans. Right guys?”

Meanwhile, Spinnerella was regaling Angella and Netossa with what had happened up in the Highlands. Glimmer leaned over, intrigued by the mention of this unknown figure.

“What did they look like?” she asked. “It might be someone we know.”

“I couldn’t make them out from far away,” Spinnerella said. “All I could see was that they were dressed in a red cloak.

Immediately, Adora’s mind lit up with thoughts of her mother figure-slash-mentor. Some of them good, but many more, especially recently, not so much. “Shadow Weaver,” she said darkly. “It has to be.”

“They did seem to have control of the shadows,” Spinnerella said. “That’s the most likely.”

Adora looked at Glimmer. “What could she want? Why would she lay low for all this time, but resurface now?”

Glimmer didn’t really have an answer. “Maybe she’s just trying to fight Horde Prime. It’s not like she’s still with the Horde.”

“We shouldn’t take that chance,” said Adora. “Even if she isn’t working for Hordak anymore, Shadow Weaver’s still dangerous. We’ll have to keep an eye out from now on.”


	12. Fighting Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The people of Beach City finally decide to fight back against Horde Prime's tyranny.

Chapter Twelve: Fighting Back

_ _ _

“Citizens, stay in your homes.” Horde Prime’s mechanical voice continued to blare through the streets of Beach City. The cybertroops had become much more aggressive lately, firing at anyone who stepped out of their house or place of business. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much to differentiate between being inside or outside. If it saw you through a window, it opened fire. If it accidentally made its way into the building, it opened fire. And if you destroyed a cybertroop in self-defence, more would soon be on their way.

“Horde Prime has practically taken over the entire town by now,” Doug said. “We won’t be able to stay much longer.”

“It’s not just Beach City, either,” said Sour Cream. “These robots have taken over pretty much the whole world. Stuff like this is happening all over the place.”

“Is anyone fighting back?” Ronaldo asked.

“The militaries are doing their best, but there’s too many of them,” replied Sour Cream. “And even then, they’re focusing on bigger cities. Looks like we’re on our own.”

Greg peered through the windows of his car wash, careful to avoid the watchful eyes of their robotic oppressors. “Well, at least we’ve got each other, right?”

“Yeah,” Jenny said. She lay prone in boredom, staring at the ceiling. “No offense to any of y’all, but...I think I’d rather be with my family right now.”

“Same,” said Buck. “You just never know how long you’ve got these days.”

“You guys, she’s coming back!” Greg exclaimed from his perch.

The ‘she’ he was referring to was Sadie, returning from an excursion through Horde Prime-controlled territory, i.e. the town proper. Everyone gathered around the door as Greg, careful not to alert any cybertroops in the process, let her in.

“Okay,” Sadie said. “I managed to get these two things, but that’s about it.” In her hands she held a Horde battle-staff and stun baton, both taken from the Fright Zone by Lars some time prior. “It’s not much, but they’re the only weapons I could find.”

Ronaldo examined the weapons. “Not a bad start, but if we really want to fight back, we’ll need to find more.”

“‘Fight back?’” said Priyanka. “Who said anything about that? We don’t stand a chance against those things. These are just so we can protect ourselves while we escape.”

“But where can we escape to?” Ronaldo said. “Horde Prime is holding on to our whole planet with an ironclad grip! Even if we can escape from Beach City, who’s to say we’ll be safe?”

“Look, dude...we’re outmatched,” Sour Cream said. “I like your tenacity, but we’re just some people. Not mystical warriors like Steven or his friends. We don’t stand a chance against some space robots!”

“Of course we do!” said Ronaldo. “Sure, we’re people, but that’s why we  _ can _ fight! This is our world! They can never have it! And it’s time we showed them that!”

Greg, who had been deep in retrospective through this, spoke up. “You know...Rose once told me that one of the things she admired most about humans was our willingness to keep going. She said that she’d seen us overcome insurmountable odds, time and time again. I think this is what we meant. No matter what the universe throws at us, a Universe always throws it right back!”

“I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d be down with busting some robot heads!” said Jenny. “Just me?”

“I want to fight, too,” said Buck. “We can’t always rely on the Crystal Gems to save us. We need to save ourselves.”

Priyanka shrugged. “Well, if a bad idea is all you have, it’s still an idea. Where do we start?”

“First, we’ll need to gather some weapons,” Sadie said, picking up the staff. “Ronaldo, you want the stun baton?”

“Someone else can have it,” he said. “I’ve got something better in mind!”

“Alrighty then,” Greg said. “We’ll meet back here soon. Everyone be careful out there!”

_ _ _

“Jenny?” asked Kofi. “What are you doing in here? Why are you going through the utensils?”

Jenny sighed. “I was afraid of this,” she said quietly, turning around to face her father. “Daddy...I’m looking for something to fight the robots with.”

Kofi looked on for a moment, as though processing what his daughter had said. She held a large steak knife in her hand--being a family of chefs, cookware was no stranger in their home. “Have you gone insane!?” he finally shouted. “Why would you think to do something like that!? We are in enough danger as it is!”

“What exactly is going on down here?” Nanefua walked into the room. “Do we really need to be shouting at a time like this?”

“Jenny here thinks she can just take a knife out, and fight on all of those machines out there by herself!”

“No, I wouldn’t be by myself!” Jenny quickly clarified. “Everybody’s going out there! Buck, Sour Cream, Mr. Universe...even Ronaldo!”

“I’m sorry, Jenny, but this is something I simply cannot allow,” said Nanefua. She made her way into the kitchen, taking the knife from her.

“Aww! But--”

“You will never be able to take on that whole army with this tiny thing,” said Nanefua. She walked over to another cabinet, removing a large cleaver. “Here, try this one instead!”

“What!?” said Kofi. “But--”

“Now is not the time for buts!” said Nanefua. “Now is the time to be kicking them! And if Jenny here wants to kick some butts, then we’ll be kicking them right alongside her!”

Though he looked like he wanted to protest, Kofi soon relented. “Alright. We are Pizzas. And Pizzas stick together.”

_ _ _

“You sure you’re up for this, kiddo?” said Vidalia. “You seem a little out of your element.”

“Maybe, but we have to do something,” said Sour Cream, gathering up his sound system. “I can’t just sit around here and--hey, Mom, what’s with the gun?”

Sour Cream turned around to see his mother holding a shotgun in her hands. “Well, I’m goin’ out there, too! Like you said, I ain’t sittin’ on my butt while these robots tear up my town!”

“Well then, get ready to drop the bass on them!” said Sour Cream.

Wearing a large grin, Vidalia leaned out of the door. “Onion, go and get your dad!” she called. “We’re going to war!”

_ _ _

“But what can I do?” said Bill Dewey. “I’m not even the mayor anymore! How can I fight a bunch of robots?”

“Hmm...hey Dad? You still have that t-shirt cannon?” asked Buck.

_ _ _

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life,” Ronaldo narrated aloud, as he climbed the stairs. “I know the day would finally come when I would be called upon to defend my homeland.”

Inside his room, Ronaldo picked up a replica katana that was mounted on his wall. “My skills are required.” He slowly slid off the sheath, revealing the (plastic) blade. “The final battle begins now.”

_ _ _

Ronaldo stood stalwart on the main street of Beach City. The wind blew. The sun shone. Unflinchingly, the warrior strode towards the cybertroops down the street, sword in hand. “HEY!”

With his shout, all of the machines turned their focus towards the approaching youth. “Citizen. Stay in your home.”

“You will not oppress us any longer!” he exclaimed, pointing the blade at the robots. “We are a mighty people, and we will overcome your terror!”

One of the cybertroops walked closer. “Stay in your home. This is your final warning.”

Ronaldo closed his eyes. “Then you have chosen...death.” With a mighty yell, he swung his katana with all the force he could muster...where it promptly snapped in half upon hitting the cybertroop’s torso.

This cybertroop raised its blasters, the others behind it following suit. “Engaging termination protocols.” Despite this display, Ronaldo stood in place. He wasn’t intimidated, because he knew what came next.

Before they could fire, a loud noise could be heard to the side of the troops. One of them looked up--and all of them were promptly smashed into by a pair of vehicles. Both Greg’s van and Peedee’s Hot-2-Tot truck skidded to the side, and from out of them poured a stream of townies, each of them intent on protecting their home. More still emerged from behind Ronaldo, who ushered them forward.

“Onwards, my brothers and sisters! Onwards to victory!”

“Alright, you, don’t overdo it,” said Peedee, pulling his older brother out of harm’s way.

“Citizens. Stay in your ho--” The cybertroop took a butter knife to the visor, crackling and sputtering before it fell over.

“Yeah! Come get some!” yelled Kiki.

“Keep hitting them!” yelled Kofi. “Don’t give them time to fire!”

Cybertroops were blown apart as Vidalia let loose with her shotgun. “Not so tough now, are ya!?” She loaded more shells while Doug gave her covering fire with his own firearm. Priyanka, meanwhile, had made due with a baseball bat. One would be surprised how well of a swing a doctor could have.

The former Mayor Dewey was armed with only a t-shirt cannon, but he made due--after all, a t-shirt could obscure a cybertroop’s vision long enough for someone else to take it out. Yellowtail was armed with a much more devastating projectile weapon: a harpoon gun. Meanwhile, his son Onion had somehow managed to get his hands on a severed cybertroop arm, and somehow got the blaster working to fire away at the machines.

Back at Greg’s van, Sour Cream was hooking up his sound system to the speakers. Greg, meanwhile, watched the battle rage nearby. “How’s it going over there?” he said.

“Almost got it,” said Sour Cream.

“Not to rush you,” Greg said, “but we’ve got company!”

Some of the cybertroops had begun to approach the van. Worriedly, Sour Cream called out for reinforcements. “Sadie, Buck, can you keep them off us?”

“On it!” cried Buck. He aimed the stun baton at the approaching bots, letting loose with an energy bolt. Energy sparked between them, momentarily stunning them, and giving Sadie an opportunity to strike.

Leaping into the fray, Sadie unfurled the staff and began swinging. Although the cybertroops were sturdy, precise strikes to the optics were more than enough to take them down.

Buck also got up close and personal, zapping the bots with the baton. He and Sadie formed a surprisingly dynamic duo, keeping the cybertroops away from Sour Cream as the latter did his thing.

“Aaaand, that should about do it!” exclaimed Sour Cream. “Let ‘er rip, Mr. Universe!”

Greg opened up the back of his van, getting a view of the entire battlefield. In addition to all of those who were stuck in the Big Donut to begin with, all sorts of people had come out of hiding to show Horde Prime what for. Everyone in Beach City was standing up and fighting, protecting their home. And surprisingly...they were winning. And they were about to finish this fight, thanks to Greg.

Speakers were positioned towards the street; Greg picked up an electric guitar. “Cover your ears, everyone! Things are about to get loud!”

Everybody got the message, heading for cover. Greg raised his hand above his head, and, bringing it down with force, strummed a single chord on the guitar. The volume was not only turned all the way up, but both he and Sour Cream had tinkered with the audio to make the sound burst forth with as much force as possible. And burst forth it did: the soundwaves exploded from the speakers, reverberating across the entire town. The cybertroops were blasted by the full extent of this power, many of them being shaken apart by the sheer force. Those who weren’t disabled outright were disabled for long enough for the townies to get back in the fight to finish them off.

Soon enough, there were no more bots. It seemed like, at long last, Beach City was freed from Horde Prime’s influence. All the people cheered, finally free after so long.

“We...we did it!” said Bill Dewey. “I can’t believe it, we won!”

“Whoo!  _ That’s _ what I’m talking about!” exclaimed Jenny.

“You see!?” Ronaldo yelled at the defeated robots. “That’s why you don’t mess with the human race!”

“That was impressive!” said Sour Cream. “Good work, everyone! Looks like Ronaldo’s plan was a success, eh, Sadie? Sadie?”

Sadie was the first to have noticed a certain dilemma. Even though they had destroyed all of the cybertroops on the ground...they hadn’t yet dealt with the ones in the air.

Dozens of dropships, each one carrying enough cybertroops to completely renew the fighting, were bearing down on Beach City. The ships dotted the skies, looming over the exhausted fighters.

“Now what are we supposed to do?” said Doug.

“Do we keep fighting?” asked Kiki.

“I’m not sure we can…” said Greg.

Faced with the terrifying possibility of all these cybertroops descending on the city, everyone stared up at the sky. In that moment, the last thing anyone was expecting was a sonic boom to ring out. But that was exactly what happened. The sound didn’t seem to come from the ships--in fact, it sounded like it had come from the complete opposite direction.

Even more curious was the ships’ reaction to this. They continued forwards, but upward rather than down. Something was above them, and Sadie looked up to see what it possibly was. “Is that…?”

An even bigger ship hung over Beach City. Green in color, it was shaped like a diamond, and had four forward-facing spikes at the corners. It loomed menacingly, facing off with the dropships.

Before anybody could question what this larger ship was or what it was doing here, it suddenly opened fire. Lasers shot from the spikes, tearing through the approaching ships. For those that it missed, missiles emerged from the dreadnought to clean up the rest of them. All of Horde Prime’s dropships were gone in a matter of moments--destroyed by this new arrival. But was it friend or foe?

“That--that’s a Gem ship, right?” asked Greg.

“Don’t ask me!” said Priyanka. “If anyone here knows about Gem matters, it would be you!”

A booming voice was projected from this ship, startling everyone present. It could be heard throughout the whole city: “Primitive organics of Earth! You will comply, or be destroyed like the rest. You will tell me where to find the one known as Lars of the Stars!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this, I imagine you've seen the new trailer! And if you haven't--go see it!
> 
> One more season, and it looks like a good one. Who here's excited!?


	13. Back Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars, along with his newly-reunited crew, infiltrate the Fright Zone to retake their ship.

Chapter Thirteen: Back Together

_ _ _

“Uh...are you sure this is safe?” asked Lars. To be fair, any sane person would ask that question when overlooking a cliff, with the goal being jumping off into the cloudy depths below.

“Yeah, I know it seems like a bad idea, but trust me, it’s perfectly safe!” Steven assured him. “You just jump off, and then a little floating island breaks your fall!”

“Are you sure about this?” Lars said, understandably hesitant.

“C’mon, Bow and I do this all the time!” said Glimmer.

Lars looked back over his shoulder. “Are you sure there isn’t some other way into Mystacor?”

“Do you want to see your crew again or not?” Glimmer said. “Just get in there!” She gave Lars a shove, sending him falling off of the precipice. His shout of terror was short-lived, as he landed on one of those floating islands just below the clouds. His eyes, which were squeezed shut, slowly opened to take in the view.

“Wow...this place is amazing!” he said. Steven and Glimmer landed beside him.

“See? What did I tell you?” said Glimmer. “And this isn’t even the actual kingdom! Just wait until you see Mystacor!”

Compelled by an invisible force, the stone platform the three stood upon was pulled through the sky and the clouds. A spectacular sight soon came into view: an enormous mystical city, surrounded by a magical barrier, emerged through the cloud cover.

“ _ That’s _ Mystacor?” said Lars. “It’s beautiful! It looks like something right out of a fantasy show!”

“This whole planet is filled with stuff like this!” said Steven. “It makes me wish we could visit at a time when there isn’t a war happening…”

Meanwhile, within the skyborne city, the trio’s presence had not gone unnoticed. Nobody had seen them approaching, or even knew that they were coming. Nevertheless, one had been notified that Lars was coming to Mystacor.

Padparadscha suddenly gasped. “Captain Lars is here!” she exclaimed, to the surprise of all her compatriots.

“Are you sure about that, Pads?” asked right Rutile. “Are you feeling okay?” asked her leftmost sister. Both of them were understandably skeptical.

“Nooow, nooow,” said Fluorite. “Padparadscha’s predictions maaaay beee a biiit slooow, buuut she’s neeever wrooong.”

“So, does that mean...is Lars really here?” asked Rhodonite.

Due to her larger size, Fluorite was able to see further into the distance than the others. She smiled; “Aaask hiiim yourseeelf!”

The other three (or four) turned their attention to where Fluorite was gazing. Over there, Castaspella was approaching...Glimmer was beside her...Steven was there as well...and sure enough, accompanying them was none other than their captain himself!

“Lars is here! He  _ is _ back!” yelled Rhodonite. The fusion ran over to the pink boy, the Rutile twins close behind her. Lars did the same, running towards his crew. He was about to greet them, but he was interrupted when Rhodonite tackled him to the ground in a high-speed bear hug. “I can’t believe it! I was starting to think you forgot about us!”

After he got his wind back, Lars returned her hug. “Aww, Rhodonite! I could never forget about you guys! As soon as I heard there was a way back to Etheria, I took it as soon as I could!”

Both Rutiles giggled before reaching out a hand to help Lars to his feet. “Welcome back, Captain,” said one. “Welcome to Mystacor!” said her sister.

Lars walked over to where the others were waiting, with Steven, Glimmer and Castaspella following behind. “Iiiiit’s goood tooooo seee youuuu,” said Fluorite. “Eeespecially after sooo looong.”

“It is,” Lars said. “It really is. And I know it’s only been about a month, but...it feels like  _ way _ longer.”

“Awww!” Steven said. “I just love heartfelt reunions!”

Castaspella approached the newly-united friends. “Well, I certainly am happy to see you all so happy! Unfortunately, Steven here has informed me that the Horde is in possession of your ship, but you’re more than welcome to stay here in Mystacor! Horde Prime hasn’t breached our magical defenses yet, so it’s perfectly safe here!”

“Wait, the Horde has the  _ Sun Incinerator _ ?” said Lars. “Well, we can’t just let them keep it, can we?”

“Wait, are you suggesting we infiltrate the Fright Zone to steal it back?” said Rhodonite. “That’s nuts! That’s right in the middle of enemy territory!”

“Sure, nothing we haven’t done before!” said Lars. “We stole it once, we can steal it again!”

“Lars, hang on a minute,” said Steven. “I know you’re glad to be back with all your friends, but you only just got here! Shouldn’t you at least take some time to get caught up? Spend some time relaxing?”

“Sorry, Steven, but no can do,” said Lars. “Especially when Horde Prime is trying to take over the universe. Wouldn’t having a ship be a big help in fighting it?”

“I agree with Lars!” said Padparadscha. “We need to get the  _ Sun Incinerator _ back!”

“Well, I guess that settles it,” Rhodonite said, sounding resigned. “If Pads wants to go, I guess we have no choice.”

“Well, if you absolutely must leave, is there at least something we can do?” asked Castaspella.

“Weee cooould uuuse aaaaall the heeelp weee caaan geeet,” said Fluorite. “Thiiis wooon’t beee eeeasy.”

Padparadscha placed her hand on Lars’ side, or at least as close as we should reach. “It’s good to have you back here with us, Captain Lars.”

Lars looked down, smiling ear to ear. “It’s good to be back, Paddy. It’s really good.”

_ _ _

Lately, patrols within the Fright Zone, as well as most Horde-controlled territories, had been diminished. Although that isn’t to say defenses were down--quite the opposite. But, with Hordak’s alliance with Horde Prime, the latter’s cybertroops had taken the spot of many organic guards. If anything, the Fright Zone was more secure than ever. Nobody would be able to get in through regular means. Not without help, anyways.

So far, everything was going well. Horde Prime had detected nothing out of the ordinary. All units were accounted for, and operating at maximum efficiency. But that would all change when a massive surge of energy was detected just outside of the eastern quadrant. Followed by an equally-massive explosion.

The Great Computer was hardly concerned, despite what was certainly a direct attack on its territory. For it knew that such a matter would be easily dealt with. Every cybertroop in the area was immediately redirected to intercept this attacker.

It was one of the traitorous princesses. Designation: Glimmer of Brightmoon, Princess of light. By Horde Prime’s analyses, the least powerful of the current princesses. This battle would be over soon. She even seemed to be retreating already.

Little did Horde Prime know, Glimmer was merely the distraction. Elsewhere in the Fright Zone, Lars, Rhodonite, Rutile, Padparadscha, and Fluorite were infiltrating the less-fortified base; the latter was surprisingly stealthy, despite her size.

“Hold up, guards coming up,” Lars whispered, holding up his arm. All of them hid just behind the corner as a pair of Horde soldiers walked past.

“Apparently, something’s going down by the eastern quadrant,” one of the soldiers said. “Should we go help?”

“Nah, no new orders came in yet,” said the other one. “Besides, pretty sure Horde Prime’s got it covered.”

“Horde Prime,” the first one repeated. “You know, not to sound paranoid, but those cybertroop things freak me out. There’s just something creepy about the way they watch you when you walk by. If you ask me, Hordak is  _ way _ too trusting of that thing!”

“I see what you mean, but Horde Prime is the one who started the Horde,” said the other. “It’s even in the name. Sure, it may be creepy, but--hang on. Did you hear something?”

Both soldiers turned around. “No. Did you?”

“I must be hearing things. Guess you aren’t the only one who’s paranoid.” Unbenounced to both soldiers as they continued walking, the off-colors had narrowly avoided being caught by them.

“That was close!” said Rhodonite with a heavy sigh. “Please tell me we’re getting close to the ship now!”

“Let’s see,” said Lars. “Padparadscha, where did they hide the ship?”

“Hang on, let me see…” said the Sapphire, accessing her past-vision. “Aha! The hangar is in the southern quadrant! It’s the same location as when we first arrived in Etheria!”

“Leeet’s gooo,” said Fluorite.

The group made their way to the specified location, careful to avoid any subsequent patrols. Not every cybertroop had gone to join the fray, and if even one of them was compromised in any way, Horde Prime would be alerted. Fortunately, the off-colors had plenty of experience sneaking around.

“There it is,” said left-Rutile, gazing down through the window at their ship. “But how do we get past the guards?” asked right-Rutile.

“I think we’ll need to take ‘em out,” said Lars. “But that won’t leave us much time to get the ship out of here. According to Steven, Horde Prime can see through all of its robots.” He stepped atop a nearby box. “Here’s how we’ll do it: Rutiles, you get Pads aboard the  _ Sun Incinerator _ while Fluorite, Rhodonite and I take care of the bots. Get it started up, and we’ll join you as soon as we can. Sound good?”

“I hope this works…” said Rhodonite.

“Alright then!” said Lars. “Come on, let’s do this!”

The plan was to overwhelm the cybertroops with a quick, relentless blitz, and leave before more had time to show up. Fittingly for such a plan, it began with the doors into the hangar being blasted off of their hinges, courtesy of Fluorite. “Gooo! Gooo!”

Fluorite, Rhodonite, and Lars quickly engaged before the cybertroops knew what hit them. The two fusions had superior strength on their side, and Lars was making use of his newly-obtained super shout.

“Intruders detected. Engaging termination protocols.” The cybertroops began to open fire on the team. Luckily for them, Fluorite blocked the incoming blasts from hitting anyone.

“Quick, get to the ship!” said Lars.

“On it, Captain!” “You got it, Lars!” Rutile took off towards the  _ Sun Incinerator _ , Padparadscha in her arms. Some of the cybertroops took notice, and slowly aimed to fire at the pair--only to be yelled to pieces by Lars.

“Got you covered!” the human said. Rutile reached the ship, pressing on the entry hatch. As the door slid open, she was unprepared for what was inside.

It seemed that Horde Prime had placed a single guard within the ship itself, something none of them had even considered. Rutile had no time to react--before she had even registered what stood before her, the cybertroop reached out, snatching Padparadscha out of her arms.

“Pads!” Rhodonite yelled in alarm. Horde Prime held the Sapphire tightly in one hand, the other a blaster aimed at the team. Rutile slowly backed away; there was nothing any of them could do, not without harming Padparadscha.

“Give her back!” “Let her go!” yelled Rutile.

The cybertroop’s visor coldly regarded all the intruders before it. “Subjects apprehended,” said the voice of Horde Prime. “Engaging termination protoc--”

A blast sounded out. The cybertroop flinched. Electricity momentarily coursed through it, before it fell to the ground. Padparadscha quickly ran over to Rhodonite, who picked her up.

“Are you alright, Pads?” the fusion asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” said Padparadscha, shaken up, but no worse for wear. “But I predict I’ll be taken hostage soon. Though...Catra will save me?”

“Catra?” said Lars. “You sure about that, Paddy?”

“See for yourself.” Everyone looked up at this voice. True to Padparadscha’s words, Catra stood just beyond the ship, a stun baton in her hand.

“You...you helped us?” said Lars. “Why?”

“I didn’t help you,” Catra said. “I hindered Hordak. As long as he’s worse off for it, I’ll let you have your ship.”

Lars and the off-colors all looked at one another. “Uh, you sure?” asked the former. “Isn’t he your boss?”

“Look, none of us are supposed to be here right now,” Catra said. “Not even me. Just get on the ship before more of them show up.”

Shrugging, Rhodonite stepped onto the ship, followed by Fluorite, with Rutile behind her. Padparadsha turned around before getting on herself: “Thanks for saving me, Catra!” Catra only scoffed.

Before he got on the ship, Lars turned around as well. “You know...if you don’t want to stay here, you can always come with us. There’s always room for one more off-color on the  _ Sun Incinerator _ .”

“Like I said, I wasn’t helping you,” she said. “I may not belong, but I am  _ not _ one of you.” She turned around, before leaping out of sight.

Lars took a seat in his captain’s chair. “At least you tried, Captain Lars,” said Rutile. “A valiant effort.”

“Yeah. She seemed so sad, though,” said Lars. As worrying about it wasn’t going to get him anywhere, he pushed the thoughts out of his mind. “Prepare for takeoff!”

Meanwhile, Glimmer was still engaged with Horde Prime herself. Not wanting to use up too much energy, she mostly used hit-and-run tactics to keep them occupied while Lars stole his ship back.

“Come on, Lars, I can’t keep this up forever…” she said. “Where are you?”

Just as Horde Prime had been surprised by an explosion earlier, now it was Glimmer’s turn. The entire ceiling was blown off of a building to the south. Up from the smoke rose the unmistakable form of the  _ Sun Incinerator _ . Hovering in the air for a moment, it then made its way over to where Glimmer was held down.

“Later, losers!” said Glimmer. She teleported out of Horde Prime’s range, right aboard the ship, which was flying low for this exact purpose. “I take it you made it?”

“Yup!” The  _ Sun Incinerator _ ’s back in our capable hands!” said Lars. He looked hesitant for a moment, but that quickly faded. “Where to?”

Glimmer grinned. “Where else?”

They set off for Brightmoon, leaving the Fright Zone behind them.


	14. An Unexpected Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horde Prime's ace in the hole arrives on Etheria.

Chapter Fourteen: An Unexpected Arrival

_ _ _

“Is it just me, or are the mosquitos worse this year?” asked Scorpia, scratching her arms with her claws. Indeed, the pesky bugs seemed to be swarming her, intent on getting a bite.

“I think it’s just you,” answered Entrapta, too engrossed in her studies to look up. “I’ve been out here all day, and I haven’t been bitten once.”

This was odd, as the pair of them were standing out in an open field. They were stationed not far from the Fright Zone, just on the edge of a small village. No other Horde personnel were present; the settlement had been overtaken entirely by cybertroops. The inhabitants had been overrun in a matter of minutes. Entrapta was only there to study Horde Prime’s battle strategies, while Scorpia had been sent by Hordak to watch over her.

“Why do they like me more than you?” said Scorpia irritably. “What, did you replace your blood with, like, oil or something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Scorpia!” said Entrapta. “If I was going to replace my blood with anything, I’d obviously choose a concoction of nanobots. Oil wouldn’t be nearly as effective at carrying oxygen to my vital organs!”

“I mean, I guess...” said Scorpia.

Down in the village itself, the cybertroops stood guard over the townsfolk, who were too afraid to fight back--the robots had more than proven themselves as far more fearsome than regular Horde soldiers. The mechanical invaders stood completely still, as though waiting for the villagers to attack. Or for something else.

Scorpia squinted as she stared down into the settlement. “And, what exactly are they doing down there?” she asked.

“It looks to me like they’re waiting for something,” said Entrapta. “I’d have to get a closer look to be sure, though.”

“Er...I dunno, ‘Trap,” Scorpia said. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. These things don’t really like it when you bother them. A few times now I accidentally blocked one of them in the hallway, and it yelled at me…”

“Huh? They’re just robots, Scorpia,” said Entrapta. “They’re just following a set of directives. And now that Hordak is the one giving them those directives, he’s the one in charge, so you’ve got nothing to worry about! ...Hang on, what are they doing now?”

The cybertroops had all shifted their gaze, so as to be staring up into the sky above the town. Both Entrapta and Scorpia craned their necks to see what it was they were looking for, but saw nothing other than a few clouds. A few seconds passed--until a flicker of energy appeared in the air. The spark grew larger and larger, brighter and brighter, until it burst apart into a gigantic wormhole.

“Aha!” said Entrapta. “It looks like Horde Prime was opening a wormhole back into the main universe! I’ve seen several of them before, but I’ve never had the pleasure of witnessing one form! Especially not one this big!”

“I wouldn’t call that a ‘pleasure,’ exactly,” said Scorpia. “So...what exactly comes through those?”

“Oh, Horde Prime has a type of ship that it uses to carry its cybertroops,” Entrapta replied. “Due to the size of this particular portal, I imagine there will be quite a few of them coming through.”

What was coming through the portal was indeed a ship, just not multiple ones, as Entrapta predicted. The reason this portal was so much larger than the others before it was because the ship it was meant to transport was also large. So large, in fact, that when it first emerged, everyone who witnessed it mistook it for a gigantic castle. And it definitely looked the part--the purple vessel had four massive towers on its sides, which combined with the four-faceted main roof, gave it a vaguely diamond-like appearance. Five engines on the bottom pumped out steady streams of unidentified energy, keeping it aloft.

“...Or, maybe, It’ll be one of those…” said Entrapta. She was clearly as surprised as Scorpia was.

“A-and what exactly  _ is _ that?” Scorpia asked.

“Given my extensive knowledge of First Ones knowledge and history...I have no idea,” said Entrapta. “But it looks like it’s headed towards the Fright Zone.”

The massive ship had begun to slowly lumber across the sky, the ground lightly shaking as it passed overhead. Given its trajectory, it was indeed making a beeline directly towards the Fright Zone.

“But, that’s where everyone else is!” cried Scorpia. “We’ve gotta warn them!” She turned around and took off running towards the skiff that had carried the pair of them there. “Hold on, Wildcat, I’m coming!”

Entrapta tried to stop her. “Scorpia, wait, it’s probably just...and there she goes.” Scorpia had already gotten aboard the vehicle speeding off after the castle-shaped vessel. “That was my ride back…”

“Objective completed.” Entrapta yelped in surprise at the voice of Horde Prime directly behind her. She turned around to see that one of the cybertroops had walked up from the village. “Awaiting further instructions.”

“Oh, you’re all done,” said Entrapta. “Now, if I may ask you...what exactly is that big ship thing up there?”

“Object in question is an Eternian colony ship,” answered the robot. “Primary usage was to scout for new worlds after the fall of Castle Grayskull at the hands of White Diamond. Specific unit was obtained from planet Earth. Aim: to repurpose ship into a factory to facilitate faster occupation of Etheria.”

“Fascinating…”

_ _ _

Despite, or perhaps because of, its large size, the colony ship had beaten Scorpia back to the Fright Zone. The gigantic vessel had positioned itself directly behind Hordak’s command tower, but it was still visible due to its size. After docking the skiff, Scorpia made her way over to the tower.

Her request to enter the commander’s inner sanctum was granted: “Enter.” The doors slid open, and Scorpia nervously walked into the room. It looked just as dark and foreboding as ever. However, there was one main difference. A window overlooking the Fright Zone was present near Hordak’s work station. Hordak stood facing said window, Imp perched on his shoulder. A cybertroop was also present by his side.

“Um, g-greetings, Lord Hordak,” Scorpia said. “So, sorry to barge in so suddenly, but, I just wanted to let you know that there’s a huge First Ones spaceship behind your base.

Not only had said ship created enough of an earthquake to be felt for almost a mile around, but it was also clearly visible from this new window. “I...have noticed.” Hordak said.

“Oh. Okay, well, just making sure. I saw it come out of that portal, and I wasn’t sure what it was doing, but once I knew it was heading here, I--”

“Force Captain Scorpia, this is Horde Prime’s ship,” said Hordak. “I was informed well in advance that it would appear.”

“Uh...okay, good, good,” said Scorpia. “Just, y’know, touching base, as they say! Anyways, that’ll be all from me, I’ll get out of your hair now!” Scorpia unceremoniously backed out the door, which slammed shut behind her. It was clear that Hordak was not exactly in the mood for chit-chat. She sighed in relief after getting out of there. But...she could still hear voices through the door. She pressed her ear to the metal to get a listen.

“Truly a magnificent vessel,” said Hordak. “The First Ones were indeed brilliant architects. Tell me, what is it you plan to do with it?”

“Purpose: repurpose colony ship into a factory,” came the voice of Horde Prime. “Current factories impractical for manufacturing cybercolossi. Begin manufacturing of cybercolossi to aid in seizure of runestones.”

“I see,” Hordak said. “In any case, it will make an ideal replacement for the one that you lost.”

“Horde Prime lost a ship?” Scorpia said to herself. “But the only ship it could’ve lost is...ours.” She hurried towards her quarters.

“Catra! Catra!” she said in an urgent whisper, after making sure nobody else was nearby. Rather than hiding, Catra was seated on Scorpia’s bed, her head resting on her knees. She seemed quite melancholy. “Catra, what are you doing? What if somebody sees you?”

“Who else comes in here aside from you?” the feline asked, glancing up.

“Okay, good point,” said Scorpia. “Anyways, I...I think I’ve got some bad news.”

“You  _ think _ you do?” asked Catra.

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but I think somebody took that ship,” said Scorpia. “The one we were planning to use.”

“I know,” Catra said. “It was that Earth boy and his entourage of freaks. I let him take it.”

“W-what?” said Scorpia. “You...let them? But, Wildcat, Why would you do that? That ship was going to be your--no, our ticket outta here!”

“Plans change, Scorpia,” said Catra. “I didn’t intend for it to get stolen. But it just happened. And rather than try to stop it, I made the best of a bad situation. Now Hordak’s down a ship.”

“But...now you’ll be stuck here. In the Fright Zone.”

“You’re wrong.” Catra got to her feet, walking to the other side of the room. “I’m stuck here in the Fright Zone...with you. And maybe...maybe that’s not such a bad place to be stuck.”

Scorpia wasn’t sure what to make of this. Catra, who had been plotting to use that ship to escape from the Fright Zone with her, and said for greener pastures, had just had her hopes dashed. But she had also said that being with her wasn’t so bad. In times like this, there was only one thing she could do. Scorpia stood up, walked over to Catra, and wrapped her claws around her in one of her famous hugs. “I’m gonna take care of you, Wildcat. I promise.”


	15. The War Escalates Redux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emerald arrives in Beach City.

Chapter Fifteen: The War Escalates Redux

_ _ _

The people of Beach City could only watch as the huge starship descended towards the beach. A minor sandstorm was kicked up by its propulsion, causing the humans to shield their faces from the particles; the ship came to a rest with its nose-cone facing towards the sky.

They were still speechless when a spherical pod seemed to melt off of the larger body, levitating closer to the crowd. Hesitantly, the townies backed away as the orb landed upon the pavement. From the top downward, it seemed to dissolve into nothing, revealing a trio of Gems within. The two on the side were identical yellow Quartzes, standing guard over their master. In the center was a tall green Gem, who glared contemptuously as she examined her surroundings.

“Planet Earth,” said Emerald, clear disdain in her voice. “I’ve always wondered what the home of Lars of the Stars was like.”

“And what is your conclusion, My Emerald?” asked one of the Citrines.

“It’s nowhere near as disgusting as I thought it would be,” she said. “In fact...it is far worse.” She turned her attention towards the stunned townsfolk that stood before her. With large strides, she walked towards them, where parting like frightened animals before her. “So, these are Lars’ people,” she said with a sneer. “I don’t suppose any of you would care to tell me where your master is hiding. Well? Anyone? You are able to understand my words, yes?”

“Uh, yeah, we can understand you, miss…?” said Greg, in an attempt to defuse a situation he felt could very easily turn hostile.

“Emerald,” she said. “It isn’t often that I would give my name to mere organics, but I suppose I owe this small courtesy to the underlings of my greatest adversary. Now...where does he reside currently?”

“You mean Lars?” asked Sadie, overcoming her initial trepidation. “He isn’t here right now. And he’s not our master.”

Emerald seemed to find this hilarious, as she let out a malicious laugh. Her Citrine bodyguards likewise chuckled at this statement, though their laughter was most likely due to wanting to appease their superior. “I’ve never heard something so ridiculous!” said Emerald. “You expect me to believe that Lars of the Stars holds no sway over you? He is objectively the mightiest human. And though this doesn’t mean much, it should still be enough for him to rule over this pitiful planet!”

Greg opted to once again try to appeal to this Gem’s sense of mercy. Given what he knew of the Crystal Gems’ past opponents, a fight with this one would not end well. “Well, Miss Emerald, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Lars isn’t here. Actually, we don’t know where he is.”

Emerald found this remark much less amusing than the previous one, her condescending grin morphing into a scowl. “I should have expected,” she snarled. “I don’t know why I expected any more from such primitive sacks of flesh. Here, I thought it would be easy; just show up and intimidate them into revealing the location of their leader, but no! Instead, the organics once again prove to be  _ un _ reliable,  _ un _ intelligent, and all-around  _ unworthy _ !” She stomped closer towards the humans as she said each word; most of them shied away from her approach, but a select few stood their ground.

“Why do you care? What did Lars do to you, anyway?” said Sadie.

Emerald seemed surprised that an organic would stand up to her like this, almost like it was quaint. “Oh, nothing much,” Emerald said. “Only  _ stealing the one thing in my life that gave it meaning! _ But I don’t suppose any of  _ you _ would care about something like  _ that _ ! You only live for a few cycles at most, anyways. What would you know about life having meaning?”

“What is with you, anyway?” said Jenny, standing up to the confrontational Gem. Emerald was nearly twice as tall as the girl, but she spoke out regardless. “You just showed up here out of nowhere and started yelling at us!”

In response to this, Emerald held her head high over the one who would speak out against her. “What gives an organic the right to speak to a Gem in this manner? You wouldn’t be fit to speak this way to a  _ Pebble _ , let alone an Emerald! Lars really should have trained you better!”

“I could say the same thing about you!” Kiki replied. “And for the last time, Lars isn’t our boss! He was just a friend who got taken to space by accident!”

Emerald’s pupils shrunk down to tiny dots at this remark. “...What?”

“You heard me!” said Kiki. “Lars was just a friend. After him and Steven went to space, we all thought he was dead. Apparently, he was, but Steven...well, I don’t really know the full story, but Steven brought him back. And after Steven came back, he--”

“ENOUGH!” With startling speed, Emerald reached out her arm, wrapping her hand around Kiki’s throat and lifting the girl above her head. “You mean to tell me that Lars of the Stars, the one who took my beloved  _ Sun Incinerator _ away from me, was nothing more than a mere, common human? Impossible! I can’t believe it! I won’t believe it!”

“You get away from her!” Kofi attempted to run forwards to save his daughter, only for his path to be blocked by one of Emerald’s Citrine guards. “Put her down, or I’ll--”

Emerald laughed once more, as though everything around her was one big joke. And to her, it was--albeit, one that was progressively becoming less and less funny. “You’ll  _ what _ , exactly?” she said. She looked at the human struggling in her hand, and then back at the frightened crowd. “So, it seems you care about this little one, hmm? Perhaps if Lars took something from me...then I should take something from him! It’s only fair, after all!”

“Don’t! Put me down!” yelled Kiki, struggling to free herself from Emerald’s grip. Almost everyone in the crowd was too afraid to do anything, and those few who weren’t were being held back by the Citrines. “Let go of me!”

“Now then...even if Lars isn’t the one in charge here, surely, since all of you know of him, at least one of you would know his whereabouts?” Emerald held Kiki out like a trophy, indicating what was at stake should she not receive an answer. “Anyone? Nobody? Going once, going twice…”

“He went through one of the portals!” The crowd parted to reveal who had spoken: Jenny. “He went through one of those portals. To--to Etheria.”

Grinning, Emerald dropped Kiki to the ground, who hurried to join the crowd. Nanefua sighed in relief. “Thank goodness! Are you alright, child?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Kiki. “But Jenny, why’d you tell her?”

“She was about to hurt you!” said Jenny. “I had to!”

“So good to know that at least one of you humans has some amount of sense,” said Emerald. “As for all the rest...I’m disappointed. It’s hard to believe we lost a war to you cowards so long ago. If Rose Quartz hadn’t come to your aid, you wouldn’t exist.” She turned back to her ship, snapping her fingers to alert her guards to join her. “And this universe would be better off for it…”

Once more, the people of Beach City watched as the spaceship rose up into the air, disappearing into the distance.

Emerald took one last glance at the small town as it drifted out of sight behind them. “Good riddance,” she said, shaking her head. “Now then...set a course for Etheria!”

_ _ _

“Come and get some, metal-heads!” shouted Frosta, just as she sent a stream of icicles towards a battalion of cybertroops. The robots were skewered by the frozen spikes. “Who’s next?”

Nobody was entirely sure why Horde Prime had begun another attack on Plumeria. But whatever the reason, the fact was that the peaceful kingdom was under siege from the mechanical menace. The Princess Alliance and Crystal Gems had mobilized to deal with this threat.

“I think I found a pretty good candidate!” said Adora, pointing out a group of approaching cybertroops with their guns extended. Frosta prepared to strike them down like before.

“Hang on a second!” said Lapis. “Here, use these!” She directed a few streams of water in Frosta’s direction, with the tiny princess freezing them solid. Both of them worked together to fling them at the robots, with the spikes piercing through their metal armor, causing them to explode.

“Woah! Nice one!” said Frosta. Lapis grinned, giving a thumbs-up.

“Show-off,” said Mermista semi-jokingly.

The literal hearthstone of Plumeria, the Heart Blossom, was being protected by Perfuma herself. With her vines, she tossed the invaders around with no effort at all. “I won’t let you take my kingdom so easily!” she said.

So far, it seemed that the heroes had everything under control. Of course, as is the way of things, the fight soon took a sudden turn for the worse. A sudden rumble shook the ground, lasting less than a second. Another followed shortly after, and then another, and another.

“Uh-oh. Anyone else feel that?” said Bismuth.

“Yeah. What’s going on this time?” said Adora.

“Nothing good, I’m sure,” said Mermista.

It almost sounds like...footsteps.” said Bow, concerned.

“Footsteps?” said Glimmer “What could be large enough to--”

And then, they saw it. Its head rose up over the treeline, red light emerging from its visor as it scanned the ground. Resembling a cybertroop on the basic level, the titanic machine possessed a far more menacing frame, as well as much more weaponry. This metal beast was large enough for one of Horde Prime’s regular units to rest comfortably on its shoulder. This was Horde Prime’s ace in the hole: a cybercolossus.

“Engaging termination protocol.” The mech’s voice was deep and booming, even more so than that of the cybertanks. Laser cannons emerged from its hands, forearms, sides, shoulders, head, and so on--each one aimed at the heroes.


	16. Age of Prime Redux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horde Prime unleashed its greatest weapon yet, while the heroes fight to defend the kingdom of Plumeria from attack.

Chapter Sixteen: Age of Prime Redux

_ _ _

Nobody was sure what to do in this situation. The titanic mechanoid had every single one of its cannons trained on the heroes. Everyone was almost too stunned by this giant’s appearance to move, but standing still was sure to result in certain doom. The air hummed as the cybercolossus’ cannons heated up, preparing to vaporize everything in its sights.

“Over here!” The yell came from Steven, who prepared to summon a shield to block in incoming lasers. Just as the mechanical monster let loose, the pink disc appeared before him, large enough to provide shelter for everyone nearby. The red beams pounded against the shield, which Steven held up as well as he could.

Frosta, thinking quickly, had erected a wall of ice to likewise block the attack. Those who weren’t near enough to Steven hid behind this icy barrier, which was slowly chipped away by the barrage. “What the heck is that thing!?” asked Frosta.

“I don’t know, but it’s gonna tear us apart unless we do something!” said Bismuth.

Rather than continue firing until their defences were worn down, the cybertroop opted for a different tactic. The beams ceased--instead, the machine began walking towards the heroes to deal with them physically. Its first move was to snatch Steven’s shield, throwing it aside. Steven’s initial reaction was to produce another, even though everyone around him had scattered the moment the bot approached.

The cybercolossus raised its leg into the air, preparing to crush Steven underfoot. “Steven!” shouted Connie. Running forward, the girl was able to tackle him out of the way just as the metal appendage slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. “Are you alright, Steven?”

“Ugh...yeah, I’m fine,” he answered. “Thanks for having my back.”

“Always, Jam Bud!” said Connie. The pair of them looked up at the massive robot, which had now focused its attention on Perfuma. “I think we’ll need to put our heads together to beat this guy, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” said Steven. “It’s gonna take some hard thinking to...oh, I get what you mean!”

“Back! Back, you metal menace!” Perfuma tried to slow down the robot by entangling its feet with her vines, but it just tore through them as it stomped towards the Heart Blossom. “Everyone! I can’t stop it!”

Frosta quickly turned towards the fusion next to her. “Garnet!” She threw both of her arms over her head, encasing them in an icicle spike. “Ice javelin!”

Garnet understood. Picking up the small princess, she hurled her towards the cybercolossus. Frosta glanced off its side, doing little damage; however, she followed up by coating the bot’s face with a thick layer of permafrost, before slowing her descent by creating an ice slide.

“Ha! Whaddya think of that!?” the icy princess asked.

Evidently, the cybercolossus was not impressed. Almost instantly, hidden panels on its back slid open, releasing a small battalion of airborne drones. Two of them flew up to its face, beginning to melt the ice with concentrated lasers, while the rest flew towards the heroes.

Before one could open fire, it was swiftly cleaved in half by Pearl. “Don’t let the drones distract you!” she said. “Keep focusing on the large one!”

“Will do!” called a voice. None other than Stevonnie appeared on the scene, hacking through the encroaching drones. “That thing wants the Runestone. We can’t let him have it!”

“Then we need to divide and conquer,” said Mermista, skewering a drone with her trident. “Me and Stephanie will focus on dividing these drones, everyone else get to conquering that oversized toaster!”

“I think there’s only one Gem here who can take this thing on,” said Garnet, turning towards Pearl.

Pearl nodded, a small smile creeping onto her face. “Let’s do it!”

The cybercolossus had engaged its weapons yet again, firing in all directions. “Cover me, I’ll take out its guns!” said Bow.

“You got it!” replied Bismuth. “Lapis, on me!” Lapis flew over to the large Gem, pulling her into the air, and finally throwing her right towards the cybercolossus’ head. With her arms in the shape of two hammers, Bismuth slammed right into its visor.

With the robot staggered, Bow took aim at its cannons. He managed to destroy three before it took notice, retracting them to prevent him from destroying any more.

Adora, who had been blocking the beams with her sword in shield form, fell back to take cover behind a tree. “How are we supposed to fight this thing?” she asked.

“How should I know?” replied Perfuma. “I’ve never had to fight something this size before!”

“Luckily...we have!” A bright light filled the area from which the voice emerged. The light parted like curtains to reveal the sharply-dressed form of Pearl and Garnet’s combined form. She was quite large, but still only came up to about the cybercolossus’ waist. “Hello everyone, and welcome to ‘Sardonyx Live!’” said Sardonyx. “We have a very special guest with us today! Give it up for...this guy!”

The cybercolossus took notice of the fusion. “Gem detected,” its voice sounded. It hurried over towards her at full speed, ready to crush its enemy. Sardonyx, luckily, was not such easy prey.

“I can see you’re eager!” she said. “Very well. Let’s start the show!” Upon reaching her, the cybercolossus threw a powerful punch where she stood, which Sardonyx was easily able to leap over. As the machine’s fist created a crater in the earth, Sardonyx pulled her hammer from her gems. She slammed the hammer down upon the robot’s head, which did little damage.

“Hmm,” said Sardonyx, puzzled. “I see you’re made of tougher stuff. But, the show must go on!”

Undeterred, the cybercolossus unsheathed its guns once more, aiming every single one of them at the fusion. But before it could fire, the heroes took action: Bow fired explosive arrows at the cannons, while Glimmer teleported up close to deal with them with her staff, before moving on to the next. Mermista and Lapis each took control over a stream of water, wrapping around the bot like a set of chains.

“Nice one!” said Mermista.

“What can I say? I’m good at what I do!” said Lapis.

Frosta followed up by freezing the water around it solid, while Perfuma spawned more vines from beneath the cybercolossus, wrapping around its legs to immobilize it. Despite being unable to either move or fire, the robot still had plenty of fight left in it. More drones flew from its back, filling up the sky. The massive swarm of aerial robots flew in a coordinated swarm towards the heroes.

“Adora! I’ll boost ya!” cried Stevonnie, summoning Steven’s shield. Adora ran over to them--the pair used the shield to springboard the latter upwards at the incoming drones. Thrusting the Sword of Protection forward, she fired a beam of light into the swarm, cleaving through them as they flew towards her. Stevonnie sliced through the ones she missed with Connie’s blade.

“Looks to me like it’s time for the grand finale!” said Sardonyx. As she sprinted towards the incapacitated cybercolossus, the head of her hammer began to spin; the end narrowed until it had formed into a makeshift drill. She leapt forward, thrusting the weapon straight into the machine’s chest.

Metal screeched and electricity sparked as Sardonyx pierced her weapon through the cybercolossus’ armor. “Sorry, mister, but you’ve been cancelled!” she said. She pushed the drill deeper, causing the armor to completely shatter.

But this still wasn’t enough. As it lowered its head to face Sardonyx, the steel titan’s visor began to glow. Too late did the fusion realize what was happening. She only had time to give an expression of surprise as a powerful beam of red light shot from the robot’s optics. The hammer-drill vanished into nothing as Sardonyx was pushed back from her opponent; Garnet and Pearl came to rest several meters away.

“Guys!” Stevonnie cried in alarm. They ran over to the two.

Meanwhile, with everyone distracted, the cybercolossus was able to break free from its containment. Despite everyone throwing everything they had at it, the machine was focused only on its true quarry: Gems. Its sights set on the four of them present, the cybercolossus revealed its trump card. Both of its hands shifted to reveal a pair of huge cannons, far larger than the little turrets it had been armed with before. These, as well as its optical laser, began to warm up, focusing on Stevonnie, Pearl, and Garnet. The latter two drained from the prior attack, Stevonnie summoned their shield, bracing for the worst.

But the shot never came.

Above the carnage, nobody could hear another sound coming--that of an approaching spaceship. Just before the massive bot could fire, a cluster of projectiles collided with it, halting its attack. The sun gleaming off its hull, the  _ Sun Incinerator _ flew by.

“It’s Lars!” said Stevonnie. “Ha, now it’s on!” In the distance, the ship turned around to circle back for another run.

“Well then, let’s give him a clear shot!” said Glimmer. “Stop this thing in its tracks!”

“There, that should be its core,” said Bow, indicating the hole Sardonyx had drilled in its chest. “One shot there should put it down.”

“Got it. Everyone, in position!” said Adora.

Recovering from its attack, the cybercolossus trained its guns on the heroes once more. Do give it a target, Stevonnie summoned their shield; the beams smashed against its surface. “Now! Give him everything you’ve got!” they yelled, straining from the effort of holding it back.

Mermista and Lapis teamed up again to latch a shackle of water over the bot’s right cannon, with Frosta freezing it solid. Perfuma wrapped her vines around the other cannon, with Bismuth helping her pull it taut. Adora ran forwards, slicing at the machine’s legs to bring it to its knees. Lastly, Glimmer teleported Bow above the bot to get a clear shot at its visor; he let loose with a shock arrow, blinding the beast.

All of this was followed up by Lars and his crew returning to open fire on the cybercolossus. The  _ Sun Incinerator _ ’s shots landed directly on its core--its chest began to glow from the damage, before being shattered by a huge explosion. The flaming husk of the cybercolossus fell to the ground, all light leaving its optics. At long last, the giant was slain.

“Woo-hoo! We did it!” Glimmer cried.

“Yeah! Take that, Horde Prime!” said Frosta. “You ain’t nothin’!”

Adora wiped her brow in both exhaustion and relief, before returning to her normal form. “Whew, great work, everyone,” she said. “Plumeria’s safe.”

“Indeed it is,” Perfuma said. “And it’s all thanks to all of you. Our airborne allies included!”

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ landed beside the heroes, where the door slid open. Lars stepped out to examine his handiwork, accompanied by Padparadscha and Rhodonite. “Looks like I got here just in time!” he said.

Stevonnie had split back into her base components. “You sure did!” said Steven. “I don’t know if we would have been able to beat this thing if you hadn’t shown up when you did!”

“Um, and why weren’t you here sooner?” asked Mermista.

“Well, it’s not my fault my source of information is delayed,” said Lars. “Padparadscha here predicted that you all were going to be attacked by a cybercolossus, which I took to mean that you were currently being attacked by a cybercolossus. Now, I had no idea what a cybercolossus is--well, I do now--but I hurried over as soon as I could.”

“Yes,” said Padparadscha. “It’s certainly luck that we--Watch that drone! It’s going for the Heart Blossom!”

“Wait, what!?” said Perfuma. “What drone!?”

Unfortunately for our heroes, the cybercolossus had merely been plan A. Plan B, which they were unable to stop, involved Horde Prime’s true purpose for invading Plumeria: taking over the Runestone present there.

By the time the heroes arrived, they could only see one of the drones having latched itself to the Heart Blossom as metal tendrils encircled the entirety of the crystal. “Assuming direct control,” came Horde Prime’s voice.

“No, stop! Get away from there!” Perfuma thrust out her hand to send out a vine to tear the drone from her Runestone. Instead, only a tiny sprig sprouted from the dirt, half-heartedly leaning towards the machine. “W-what? My powers…?”

Runestone successfully assimilated,” Horde Prime said. “Control over Etheria: twenty-two percent.”

“I’ll take care of this,” said Bismuth, shaping one of her arms into a blade. As she marched towards the drone, Glimmer could see its optic begin to blink red. Not only that, but it began to do so quicker as the Gem came closer.

“Wait, stop!” Glimmer shouted. She teleported over to Bismuth, bringing her back towards the group. With nobody approaching, the beeping stopped.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” asked Bismuth.

“It’s that drone. It was...something’s up,” said Glimmer.

Indeed, Horde Prime then confirmed her suspicions. “Any unauthorized personnel approaching the Runestone will result in immediate self-destruction. Any attempts to remove the drone will result in immediate self-destruction.”

“So...what do we do?” asked Frosta. “The way that was worded made it sound like it would blow up no matter what.”

“...And take the Heart Blossom with it…” said Perfuma. “We can’t risk that. We’ll need to find another way.”

“Don’t worry,” said Bow, placing a comforting hand on Perfuma’s shoulder. “We’ll find some way to fix this. We always do.”

Just then, Padparadscha let out a light gasp. “What’s the matter, Paddy?” asked Lars.

“Plumeria isn’t the only place Horde Prime will be sending its cybercolossi,” answered the Sapphire. “They will spread out all over Etheria. Horde Prime will use them to take control over all of the Runestones, until Etheria is its to command. And then...it will use its power to destroy everything that opposes it.”

Everyone was silent for a moment. “But that means…” said Adora. “…that it’s already happened…”

Mermista concentrated, trying to lift a nearby puddle into the air. It should have been child’s play, but the water barely rippled. Likewise, when Frosta attempted to create a wall of ice, the temperature hardly decreased. “No…” she said, horrified.

“Control over Etheria: twenty-five percent, and counting,” said Horde Prime. “Thirty percent...forty percent...fifty percent…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't finished season 5 yet, so nobody spoil!
> 
> But now I have! Man, what a rush! Y'all loved it too, right?


	17. Tyranny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When new information comes to light, Horde Prime decides to seize control of the Horde from Hordak.

Chapter Seventeen: Tyranny

_ _ _

The clanging of metal and the hiss of welding torches emanated from the vessel that in the distant past was a First Ones colony ship. Once designed to ferry refugees across the cosmos, Horde Prime had converted it into a factory for its insidious soldiers. With resources acquired from the Etherian Horde, productivity was at an all-time high. Armies of the machines were churned out faster than the Rebellion could destroy them--it was only a matter of time before they overwhelmed the planet completely.

But as well as these cybertroops, the ship contained something almost as important as conquest to Horde Prime: knowledge. As Horde Prime had been inactive for millennia, any information of that missing time was ravenously scooped up into its databanks. So far, the information found had been lackluster: the colonists had left Eternia after Gemkind had taken over, converting the planet into their Homeworld. This group of survivors were no different. However, a log entry towards the end of their voyage caught Prime’s attention:

“Log date 14-22-56. Captain Valis speaking. Our ship sustained heavy damage after straying into Horde-controlled territory. I...I don’t think we’re going to be able to make it to Etheria. We’re trying to repair the engines, but it’s not going to be enough. Life support is failing. Everyone’s talking about how lucky we were to escape from Prime...but I’m not entirely sure we did, in the end. We’re going to have to make an emergency crash-landing on a nearby planet. It’s uninhabited, but it should be able to sustain life. Here, we can--”

Upon putting the pieces together, Horde Prime stopped the recording. Did she say they were attacked by the Horde? Prime, no less? It looked deeper into its files--upon their first meeting, Hordak had said that he served one with its name. Obviously, after its initial deactivation, others had taken on its name. It searched through the ship’s files to locate more information on the matter.

That’s when it found it:  _ Lord Anillis of Kur. Ninth to bear the title of Horde Prime. Seized power after murdering the eighth. Uses an inexhaustible supply of clones to cement his rule of the known universe. Second only to White Diamond in terms of conquest. _

And there it was. Prime’s memory logs were jumbled from its time spent dormant, but it knew that something about Hordak was familiar. This information proved those feelings. Hordak was a clone of the ninth Horde Prime. This Horde Prime was a Kur. And, per directive 4-5-2 of the Great Computer initiative, all Kur were to be labeled as enemies of Eternia.

“Secondary directive acquired,” said Horde Prime. “Life form designated ‘Hordak’ has been labeled enemy of Eternia. Elimination protocols adjusted.”

_ _ _

Within Hordak’s sanctum, both he and his guest were unaware of the recent developments happening aboard the colony ship. He and Entrapta were too engrossed in the latter’s studies regarding the portal activity caused by Horde Prime.

“And it isn’t just Earth, either!” Entrapta explained enthusiastically, gesturing towards the computer screens. Upon them were several diagrams showing how Etheria had become a veritable network of portals. “If my research is correct, which it usually is, these portals lead to locations all over the universe! Horde Prime must have access to some really powerful tech to be able to open up this many of them at once!”

“Of course my brother’s namesake is powerful,” said Hordak. “It is able to accomplish what I have struggled to do in mere moments. With it by our side, Etheria will be ours in a matter of days.” Hordak strolled over to the window to overlook the Fright Zone. “And with this planet’s magic within our grasp, we will be able to spread the Horde’s reach far and wide across all of creation!” He turned back to Entrapta, reaching out a hand. “And...I would be honored if you would choose to accompany me in my mission of conquest.”

Entrapta’s eyes immediately began to sparkle. “Absolutely, I would! Did you hear that, Emily? We get to go on an intergalactic journey with Hordak!”

Emily, upon whom Imp had seated himself, beeped happily at this news.

Unfortunately for the lab partners, this moment of happiness would not last. For neither of them noticed the glowing red optics that now glared at them both. Not until Horde Prime spoke: “Target located.”

Both of them looked up, greeted by the unwelcome sight of several cybertroops interrupting their moment. “What is it now?” asked Hordak, understandably irritable.

“Target located,” the closest one repeated. All of them began walking towards Hordak with a menacing stride.

“Oh, hello!” The cybertroops were stopped in their tracks as Entrapta placed herself directly in front of them. “Me and Hordak were just talking about portals and stuff. Did you have something you wanted to say?”

The cybertroop in front lowered its gaze to face Entrapta. “Citizen, please comply,” it said. “Enemy of Eternia has been located.”

Entrapta’s head tilted to the side in confusion. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Could you be more specific?”

“Kur located. Kurs have been designated as a lower life form by the Great Machine initiative. All Kurs encountered must be destroyed.”

Entrapta was still in the dark, but Hordak knew all too well what Horde Prime meant. “Entrapta.” His voice was quiet, but urgent. “You have to go. Now.”

“Huh? But we were just getting started!” Entrapta said. She turned back to the robots. “Tell me, what exactly is a ‘Kur’?”

“Citizen, please comply,” said Horde Prime. “This is your final warning.”

Entrapta backed up slightly. “Okay, no need to get all bent out of shape! We’re all on the same side here, just--”

A few things happened in the next split second. First, all the cybertroops present activated their weapons. Second, before they could fire, even before they aimed, Hordak pushed Entrapta out of harm’s way. Thirdly, Emily and Imp, recognizing what was happening, both returned to their respective masters’ side. And lastly, Hordak thrust his arm out towards the machines, destroying the nearest with a blast of energy from his palm. “Entrapta, run!”

“Engaging termination protocols.” Every single one of the cybertroops opened fire, their blasters trained on Hordak. Entrapta’s armor mostly protected him, but he feared it wouldn’t last forever. He took cover from the blasts behind a nearby metal pipe.

Entrapta tried to yank one of them away. “No, stop! Don’t hurt him!” This only resulted in the cybertroop in question turning its attention towards her.

“You have been warned. Engaging termin--” The robot was suddenly blasted to pieces by a shot from Hordak.

“Entrapta, you have to go,  _ now _ !” cried Hordak. Cybertroops continued to surround him. A crimson blade of energy emerged from his wrist, which he used to destroy those within swinging distance.

Emily tried to urge her master to escape, but Entrapta refused to budge. “I can’t! I’m not leaving you here!”

“They won’t stop even if you stay!” said Hordak. “Please, get somewhere safe. Horde Prime is too powerful to fight alone.”

“But I won’t be alone if--”

Hordak sprinted over to Entrapta, cutting clean through a bot seconds before it could open fire on her. He then proceeded to lift her over his shoulder, carrying her outside of his sanctum before placing her on her feet. “I refuse to put you in danger,” he said, before turning to the modified Horde bot beside them. “Emily, get her to safety.” Emily beeped in reply.

Hordak then turned around, returning to face the cybertroops once again. Both of his wrist blades ignited. He turned back to Entrapta, giving her one last look. “Promise me you’ll stay safe.”

With a nod from Hordak, Imp then proceeded to seal the doors to the sanctum. Entrapta ran over, trying to pry them open with her bare hands. “No! Hordak! Don’t do this, please!” Despite her efforts, the doors wouldn’t budge. Emily tugged on her hair, urging her to get to safety. Realizing that there was no way to get to him, Entrapta gave up her efforts. “What...what did you do, Hordak?”

The science princess looked around. More and more cybertroops were approaching, seemingly just as intent on eliminating her as they were Hordak. Although she hated to do so, leaving was her only option.

Within the sanctum, Hordak fought with a resolve he never had before. Cybertroops fell to his blades as he simply shrugged off their laser beams. But all that sustained fire was beginning to take a toll. With help from Imp, he evaded what he could, but there were simply too many. His only chance for survival was to destroy them all.

In fact, he came surprisingly close to this. Although his armor was damaged and his body was exhausted, he refused to stop fighting. Soon, only one cybertroop remained, too damaged to continue fighting. Raising his blade over his head, Hordak charged, intent on taking out as many of them as he could.

Although more of the cybertroops remained, Hordak was sealed in his sanctum. It would take too long to break in, and odds of him were escaping were too high if he remained within this room. Before it could be destroyed, Horde Prime made a calculated move. As he ran forward, a portal opened up in front of Hordak. Too late noticing what was happening, both he and Imp disappeared within, the gateway closing behind them. Horde Prime had transported them elsewhere, to a place with a fan lower rate of survival. It was a gamble, but a calculated one. Hordak was gone, at least for the moment.

_ _ _

Entrapta continued to run through the Fright Zone, passing by cybertroops after her blood as she did. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was headed--certainly away from this place. But where could she be safe from Horde Prime?

Rounding a corner, she found herself confronted by a trio of cybertroops. She tried to turn around, but they had already noticed her, bringing up their blasters. “N-now hang on!” she said. “There’s no need for that!”

Evidently not feeling the same way, the cybertroops made to open fire. Luckily, in the nick of time, they were suddenly destroyed by a blast of energy. Entrapta opened her eyes to see a clear path ahead of her. “Great shot, Emily!” The robot beeped.

The pair continued their escape. “Okay, we just need to make it to the hangar,” Entrapta said. “I can probably hotwire a skiff, and then we can escape to...somewhere else. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but we’ll figure something out!”

But they would have no such luck. By now, Horde Prime was combing the entire Fright Zone for them, so they were bound to run into more cybertroops eventually. When they did, their path was blocked by a small army marching down the hallway towards them.

“O-okay, let’s think about this,” said Entrapta. “There has to be some way to get ourselves out of here…”

The bots opened fire. Emily did the same. Though the former had numbers, Entrapta had modified the latter with far superior weaponry and armor. Entrapta crouched behind her as the cybertroops were destroyed one by one. But despite this, they just kept coming.

It was then that Entrapta spotted their escape: “Aha! The vents!” She used her hair to pry off a grate big enough for both of them to slip through. “Let’s go, Emily! ...Emily?”

The modified Horde bot had taken quite a beating. Her armor began to fall off, revealing the circuitry underneath. Cracks appeared in her optic, disabling her laser. One of her legs no longer functioned, forcing her to drag herself to the open vent. And the cybertroops just kept on firing.

“Emily! Come on, I’ve got you!” Entrapta retreated to the safety of the vents, dragging her loyal companion behind her. The pair tumbled down through the shaft before ending up in an open area, hopefully far away from the cybertroops. Entrapta sat up, but Emily wasn’t in good shape.

“Emily, please, don’t do this to me!” said Entrapta. “Hordak might be gone, I don’t want to lose you, too!” Emily gave out a sad beep as her creator cradled her. Her optic light flickered.

“Wait! I have an idea!” Entrapta produced her tablet, wiring it into Emily’s hard drive. She began rapidly typing on it while working on Emily at the same time. “Come on, baby, stay with me!”

After a while, the light from Emily’s optic faded. Metaphorically crossing her fingers, Entrapta loaded the newest program installed to her data pad. “Emily?”

…

Happy beeps emerged from the device.

“Emily!” cried Entrapta, holding the tablet close to her chest. Emily beeped some more, indicating how glad she was to have been saved. “Alright, now that that’s settled, let’s get going, girl! We’ve got a job to do!”

Emily beeped quizzically.

“What else?” answered Entrapta. “We’ve got to put a stop to Horde Prime!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how lit was season five?


	18. Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horde Prime's control over Etheria grows by the minute. With no other options, a potential new helper arrives in Brightmoon.

Chapter Eighteen: Allies

_ _ _

Plumeria. Salineas. The Kingdom of Snows. The Heart Blossom. The Pearl. The Fractal Flake. As these kingdoms were occupied by Horde Prime, these Runestones were taken over. With each Runestone Horde Prime gained seized, that princess lost access to its power, and Prime gained further control over Etheria.

Only Brightmoon remained untouched. Its defenses tripled once the news that Horde Prime had deployed new, larger units reached Queen Angella. But it wasn’t due to these new countermeasures that there were no attacks; no cybertroops were sighted in the area. As tensions rose, it became apparent that Prime was preparing for a large scale-attack. At least, this is what Glimmer seemed to believe. The princesses and Gems were seated around the war table, discussing what their next move would be.

“We don’t know that for sure, Glimmer,” said Bow, trying to ease tensions. “Maybe Horde Prime already got what it wanted.”

“No, what it  _ wants _ is the Runestones,” Glimmer replied. “You heard it: it’s using those drones to take them over, and that’s giving it more control over Etheria. And by now, the Moonstone is the only one it doesn't have.”

“Okay, let’s look at the big picture,” said Connie. “We know that Horde Prime wants to destroy all Gems. But it also wants to take over Etheria. So, there has to be something about Etheria that will allow it to destroy all Gems. Right?”

“Sound reasoning,” said Angella. “Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing for sure.”

“Light Hope would have known,” said Adora. She looked somber for a moment, before shaking herself back into reality. “But I think Glimmer’s right. Horde Prime’s definitely going to come after Brightmoon. We need to be ready for when it does.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” said Mermista. “We all got our powers jacked, remember?”

Netossa was particularly distraught by this. “If I can’t toss nets...am I really Netossa?” she asked herself.

Spinnerella did her best to console her. “It’s alright, darling. You’ll always be my Netossa, no matter how many nets you toss!”

“Besides, you still got us, right?” said Bismuth. “Look, whatever this talking glitch can throw at us, it’s nothing the Crystal Gems can’t handle. Right, guys?”

“Too right!” said Pearl. Garnet nodded as well.

“Okay, that’s all fine and good, but what about the other kingdoms?” asked Glimmer. “We can stay holed up in Brightmoon all day, but we really don’t have plans to defeat Horde Prime, do we?”

“Not entirely accurate!” Everyone turned, greeted by the only Gem that hadn’t been present: Peridot. “If you’ll remember, I’ve been working on a virus that just might be able to take Horde Prime down for good!”

“Great!” said Steven. “I knew we could count on you, Peridot!”

“And how long until you’re done?” asked Bow.

“Oh, it should be any moment now!” Peridot said. “Well...give or take five days,” she added sheepishly.

“Five days!?” exclaimed Frosta. “We don’t even know if we have five  _ minutes _ !”

“What do you want!? Coding’s harder than it looks, even for me!” said Peridot. “Besides, Horde Prime runs on some really complex algorithms. You’re lucky I’ll be able to finish within the month!”

Mermista threw up her hands. “Well, this is just great! We’re stuck without our powers, Horde Prime could send his robots to attack us whenever it wants, and our only hope could take days! Did I miss anything?”

“No, that...that about covers it,” said Perfuma.

“If anyone needs me, I’m going to keep working,” Peridot said, slightly irritated, as she walked out. “You know where to find me.”

“Do we?” Lapis asked Amethyst.

“Thanks, Peridot! We appreciate you!” Steven called after her. “So...what should we do now? Just wait?”

“I think that’s all we  _ can _ do,” said Adora. “Unless anyone wants to help Peridot with her little project?”

“I think I’ll pass,” said Mermista.

With nothing left to add, the people seated at the table stayed there in silence for some time. “So…” Connie said. “Do you have board games on this planet?”

Luckily for everyone, a more proactive course of action would then reveal itself. “Your majesty!” The General of Brightmoon’s army entered the room, accompanied by a pair of guards. “An intruder was captured trying to sneak into the castle. Horde.”

“What?” Angella stood up. “You apprehended them of course?”

The General nodded. “She’s being held in the guest room. She keeps insisting to speak to this one.” She pointed at Bow.

“Me?” Bow said. “Why would she--” Realization hit him. “Entrapta…”

“But why would Entrapta come here?” said Adora. “I can’t exactly see Hordak sending her here on a scouting mission.”

“Then I guess we’d better find out,” said Bow, standing up. “Let’s go see her.”

The Best Friend Squad, accompanied by Connie and Steven, allowed the General to escort them to the prison cell--that is to say, the guest room. Upon reaching it and opening the door, they were greeted to the sight of Entrapta holding a chair over her head, evidently about to break open a window. She dropped it once she saw them.

“Bow!” she said. “And other assorted friends! Just the people I wanted to see!” She hurried over to them, only to be blocked by Glimmer.

“Hold on a minute!” she said. “Before you start acting all friendly, you need to tell us why you’re here. You weren’t spying for the Horde, were you?”

“Oh, of course not!” Entrapta said. “It’s just that Hordak…” Upon saying his name, realization appeared to hit her. “...Hordak…but anyways, I came here looking for help.”

“Why would you need our help?” asked Adora.

“It’s...it’s Horde Prime,” Entrapta said. “I really don’t know what happened, but it...turned on us. I thought it was working for Hordak, but it suddenly just attacked us. Me and Emily managed to escape, but I don’t know what happened to Hordak. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

After a brief silence, Connie was the first to speak. “So, Horde Prime isn’t working with the Horde anymore. Is that a good thing? Bad thing? Neutral thing?”

“I don’t know,” said Adora, shaking her head. “But what I do know is that we need all the help we can get right now.”

“Great!” said Entrapta. “I knew I could count on my old fr--” She stopped herself mid-sentence. She had been standing up on her hair, but she then lowered herself down onto her feet. “Anyways, Horde Prime is our mutual enemy right now. I’m happy to help in any way I can!”

“Just don’t try anything funny,” said Glimmer.

“Hang on, I think I know exactly how you can help us!” said Steven. “Peridot’s working on a way to let us defeat Prime for good, but she said it might take a while. With your help, maybe we can get it finished in time.”

“Sure! I’d be happy to help!” said Entrapta. “Where is she?”

“C’mon, we’ll take you to her,” said Connie. Although the General was hesitant, Adora and Glimmer were eventually able to let them take Entrapta with them. She followed them excitedly through the castle, apparently looking forward to working with Peridot again.

“Bow, are you sure about this?” asked Glimmer quietly. “She’s still with the Horde, after all. She could be lying.”

“That doesn’t sound like Entrapta,” said Bow. “She’s never been the type to lie, especially like this. I think she’s telling the truth.”

“I hope you’re right,” Glimmer said. “But we should get someone else to keep an eye on her, just in case.”

“Okay, here we are,” said Steven. He lightly knocked on the door to Peridot’s makeshift workshop. “Hey, Peridot, we’ve got someone here to help you!”

“And who is that?” asked the green Gem as the door opened. A look of apprehension spread across her face once she realized who it was. “Oh...her.”

“Hi!” said Entrapta, barging into the darkened room and seating herself right beside Peridot. “I heard you were working on some kind of countermeasure for Horde Prime. Your friends here say you could use some help!”

“I-in a manner of speaking, yes,” Peridot said. “The virus I’m trying to program is taking longer than expected.”

“Let’s get started, then!” said Entrapta. “You know, Horde Prime used a robot I built as a template for its cybertroops, so I can find my way around them no problem! We’ll have this virus done in no time!”

“Good to hear!” said Adora. “Well, we’ll leave you to it. Good luck!”

“Uh, you’re just leaving her here with me?” asked Peridot, slightly nervous.

“We’ll send someone up to keep you company,” said Connie. With that, the five of them headed back downstairs to tell the others of the good news.

“So, what now?” asked Steven.

“Now?” said Glimmer. “Now we prepare.”

_ _ _

Horde Prime was created for one purpose, and one purpose only: the enforcement of Eternia’s will by way of the destruction of all of Gemkind. Although much of its efforts were now focused on Etheria, the rest of the wider universe still felt its wrath, most of all Homeworld and its territories. But one single beacon of hope still shone to the Gems, especially those abandoned by the Diamonds: the  _ Crystallon _ . Although none knew its name, rumors spread of this mysterious ship that would appear over a colony or outpost under siege, fight off Horde Prime’s forces, and disappear into the cosmos. It became something of an urban legend.

And aboard this very ship, some very troubling readings had reached the resident ensign. The Gem in question brought this information to the ship’s de facto captain. “Hessonite, I thought you would want to see this,” said Demantoid, showing her fellow Garnet the screen.

“Hmm...that’s quite a bit of energy,” said Hessonite. “And where did these readings originate?”

“It appears that they occurred somewhere within Galaxy-18,” replied Demantoid. “We have not been able to locate the exact source.”

“But the only thing in Galaxy-18 is…” Her eyes widened. “...Earth.” She stood up, getting everyone’s attention. “We have to go there, now!”

“Must we?” asked Pyrope. She held the sleeping form of a Ruby underneath one of her arms. “We only just got back from an excursion!”

“I won’t let Horde Prime’s attack Earth,” said Hessonite. “Steven helped me realize my true purpose in life, and I refuse to let his planet fall!”

“Hessonite, we are not even certain if these readings are due to Horde Prime,” said Demantoid. But it was no use--Hessonite had already made up her mind. The Prism Sisters and co. were heading to Earth.


	19. Escape from the Fright Zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Horde Prime now in command, Scorpia scrambles to find Catra as it prepares to finish off the Rebellion for good.

Chapter Nineteen: Escape from the Fright Zone

_ _ _

Scorpia just happened to be nearby when she heard the fighting.

It wasn’t that she was suspicious of Horde Prime, and was eavesdropping on it and Hordak because she was worried about Catra. Horde Prime had eyes everywhere, after all, and if word that her friend was still hiding out in the Fright Zone, who knows what would happen? Whatever Scorpia had expected to hear, it wasn’t the sound of the cybertroops turning on Hordak.

As soon as she heard the words ‘Engaging termination protocols,’ she knew things were bad. And when she heard blasters firing, she knew she had to go. She started off sprinting back to her chambers...only to run into a patrol of cybertroops.

The large Scorpion woman stopped in her tracks. “Oh, uh, hey guys!” she said, trying to act casual. “You, uh...see anything suspicious lately?”

The machines simply walked right past her. The one nearest to her glanced at her as it did so, the cybertroops otherwise paying her no attention. Once they had passed, she anxiously hurried to her quarters.

She slid in through the open door, making sure she wasn’t spotted. “Catra?  _ Catra _ ?” she said in an urgent whisper. “Something’s going down, we need to leave!” But despite the urgency in her voice, Catra refused to show herself. “Catra? Are you in here? Groan in exasperation if you can hear me!” She really thought that would work.

Her concern now slowly beginning to make way to panic, Scorpia went back outside, trying to think of where else Catra could be. The training room? The barracks? The latrine? On her way, she ran into a group of Horde soldiers, staring at more cybertroops. The robots seemed to be converging on one location from all over the Fright Zone. Among those watching were the trio of cadets.

“You guys!” Scorpia said as she approached them from behind, startling Kyle. “Have any of you seen Catra?”

“Are you crazy? You can’t just sneak up on us like that, I could’ve decked you!” said Lonnie. “And wasn’t Catra banished, or something?”

“Long story short, she’s been living with me since then,” Scorpia said. All three of them expressed no surprise whatsoever at this revelation. “But I can’t find her, and these Horde Prime bots are acting all weird! I think she might be in trouble!”

“Well I’m sorry about all that, but we’ve got bigger problems right now!” said Lonnie. “Namely, whatever it is that Horde Prime’s doing.”

“Ooh, yeah, about that,” said Scorpia. “I think it kinda...turned on Hordak.”

“What? What do you mean, ‘turned on Hordak?’” asked Kyle.

Before Scorpia could respond. A loud metallic drone suddenly emerged from the huge First Ones ship parked behind Hordak’s sanctum. A red light shot out from the top, filling the air with an enlarged hologram of the Horde’s emblem. Following that, the air was filled with a fleet of dropships.

“Restructuring of management complete,” came Horde Prime’s voice. “Horde Prime is now in sole command of all branches of the Horde. All Horde troopers and Force Captains are under my command. Control over Etheria: ninety-three percent, and counting.”

“...that’s what I meant.” said Scorpia.

As the dropships flew out of the refurbished colony ship, the ground began to rumble. Battalions of not only cybertanks, but cybercolossi as well made their way through the Fright Zone and beyond, all of them advancing on an unknown target. Joining their ranks were numerous Horde bots, the orange lighting of their optics now a bright shade of red. Prime had evidently taken control of them as well.

“Alright, forget this, I’m gonna keep looking!” said Scorpia. She took off in the opposite direction of the advancing army, further into the Fright Zone.

“Scorpia, what are you doing!?” asked Lonnie, as she, Kyle, and Rogelio gave chase. “You can’t just run  _ towards _ those things! Scorpia!” But when it came to her best friend Catra, there was no stopping her.

Scorpia stopped once she was back inside, out of breath. “Okay,” she said, panting. “We can cover more ground if we split up. Lonnie, you check out the south side. Kyle, you go west. Green guy, take the east, and I’ll--”

“Scorpia, what is going on!?” asked Lonnie. “You can’t just spring all this on us! First you tell us that Catra’s been here the whole time, and now you’re making us go look for her,  _ in the middle of an uprising _ , by the way! Think you could give us some more details before we run off again?”

“Okay…” Scorpia calmed herself down enough to get her bearings. “So, I was...near Hordak’s sanctum, for reasons, and I heard him talking to Entrapta and Horde Prime. And then...Prime just started shooting. This huge fight broke out, but I don’t know why. And Entrapta…” It suddenly dawned on her: “...I don’t know where she is, either.” She looked up to face the trio, the worry in her eyes clear. “This isn’t good, you guys.”

Kyle stepped up to her, patting her on the arm. “Don’t worry. We’ll find them,” he said. “They’re probably just--”

“Horde troopers.” The four of them were caught off-guard by a trio of cybertroops approaching them. “Stay in your barracks. Cybernetic units will take over for the foreseeable future. You are temporarily relieved of your duties.”

Scorpia opened her mouth to protest. Lonnie, however, stepped in front of her. “Right, you got it! Heading back to the barracks now! Good luck fightin’ the princesses without us, we don’t mind, right guys?” Rogelio growled something in reply, while Kyle nodded, only to change it to shaking his head.

Scorpia leaned down to the cadet’s level. “Lonnie, what are you doing?” she whispered.

“Look, we really don’t want to get on these things’ bad side!” she responded. “Just do what they say for now, we can look for your girlfriends later!”

Just as they made to leave, one of the cybertroops focused on Scorpia. “Princess,” it said.

Scorpia wheeled around. “Huh? Me?”

“The Princesses of Etheria have been deemed allies of Gemkind,” it said. The three cybertroops began walking forward, their intent clear. “Gemkind and all of its allies must be wiped from the universe.”

“Woah woah woah, kinda jumping to conclusions, there!” said Scorpia, holding up her claws. “I’m an ex-princess, remember? I don’t even have a connection to the Black Garnet! At least...I don’t think I do…”

The three robots extended their weapons, which glowed with a harsh light. “Engaging termination protocol.”

Scorpia didn’t waste any time in lunging. Her claw instantly tore through the metal chassis of the cybertroop nearest her, cleaving it nearly in two. She held up her other claw to protect herself from the blasts from the remaining bots. She extended her tail, piercing it through one of the bots, and throwing it down the hallway. The third, she dispatched by slamming her arm into it, sending it into the wall, where it crumpled into a heap.

“You three get out of here, I’ll keep ‘em busy!” Scorpia said.

“But you’re the one they’re after!” exclaimed Kyle. “If anything,  _ we _ should be the ones keeping them from  _ you _ !”

“How about we all just get out of here together?” Lonnie quickly suggested. The others were just as quick to agree.

However, the second of the cybertroops wasn’t yet finished. It raised up its remaining arm, preparing to fire a blast at Scorpia while her back was turned. “Engaging termination protoc--”

The cybertroop was smashed by an unseen attacker before it could get its shot off. Scorpia turned around at the noise, surprised to see who had joined them. “Catra!”

Catra pulled her claws out from the destroyed robot, wearing a grimace of irritation. “I can’t leave you alone for  _ five minutes _ …” she said.

“Catra, you’re okay!” Scorpia exclaimed. She ran over to hug her, only to stop in her tracks when Catra held up her hand. “I-I heard fighting, and then I couldn’t find you, and I was worried, and…”

“I went. To get. A  _ drink _ ,” said Catra. “It’s bad enough you smother me physically with your hugs, now you have to smother me emotionally?”

“Can we save the touching reunion for later?” said Lonnie. “Horde Prime’s gone rogue, and it is  _ not _ happy with us!”

“We should probably get out of here before they come back…” said Kyle. Just as before, the others were quick to agree.

“Hey, Catra?” Scorpia asked, as the five of them hurried to elsewhere. “You haven’t seen Entrapta, have you? I think she was with Hordak when this happened. I’m worried she might be in trouble.”

“She’s Entrapta,” Catra replied. “She always finds a way out of situations like these.”

Outside, the situation was even worse. Horde Prime was sending out all of its forces, directing them towards a single target. “That’s probably not good…” said Kyle.

“But where are they going?” asked Lonnie.

“Only one place they’d want to go,” replied Catra. Suddenly, a deep rumble overtook the Fright Zone. The ground shook, and windows quaked as the Eternian colony ship began to rise from its resting place and into the air. The massive vessel seemed to take up half the sky as it slowly hovered towards its destination.

“Yeah, I’m with Kyle on this one,” said Scorpia. “Definitely  _ not _ good.”

_ _ _

“Wow, it’s no wonder Horde Prime went crazy with coding like this!” Entrapta said as she examined the detached cybertank head.

“And, what does that mean, exactly?” asked Peridot.

“Well, it looks like it was thrown together at the last minute,” replied Entrapta. “It probably caused all sorts of glitches and things. Illogical decision-making, misinterpretation of directives, that sort of thing. Very sloppy. The First Ones who programmed it must really have wanted to get rid of you guys in a hurry!”

Peridot looked slightly perturbed by this remark, but Bismuth, who sat beside the pair, only laughed. “You nerds almost done with that virus? We don’t have too much longer, you know!”

“No worries! With Peridot and myself on the case, nothing can stop us!” said Entrapta.

“Er...right! Exactly!” said Peridot. “Nothing can stop the Science Buddies!”

Nothing, that is, except for the wheels of time. The three of them were surprised by a knock at the door, which opened to reveal Lars. He looked a bit disheveled, like he had come there in a hurry. “Please tell me you’re almost done!” he said.

“Mmm, not quite. It’ll be a few minutes. Why?” asked Entrapta.

“Because they’re here,” said Lars.

He led them over to a nearby window, the view of which revealed a sky absolutely filled with dropships, while the ground was littered with cybertanks and cybercolossi. The crown jewel, the Eternian colony ship, hung above them all, like a threatening moon. And every single one was making a beeline for Castle Brightmoon.

“Welp...it’s that time,” said Bismuth. “Peri, crazy girl, you two keep working on that virus. We’ll handle these tin cans.” She hurried for the doors, gesturing for Lars to follow her. “Come on, Pinky, it’s showtime!”

_ _ _

The only source of light in the entire room was the viewscreen, which displayed video feed of the invasion of Brightmoon. The figure watching it let out a contented growl at what he saw. “And so, it begins,” said the Surgeon. “The She-Ra’s final test.”

“A bit lofty for a test, wouldn’t you say?” The Surgeon turned to face the green-colored figure beside him. “Even with little Adora’s new allies, she might be in over her head with this one…”

“That is what I am counting on,” the Surgeon said. “If Brightmoon falls, Horde Prime will complete our task for us. If She-Ra is successful…” He turned towards the darkness within his lair. “...then we will proceed as planned.”

“Ah. You mean Shadow Weaver, I presume?” Double Trouble said. “I take it you want me to organize a little get-together?”

“Yes, indeed,” said the Surgeon. “Once the war with Horde Prime is over...it is high time we met, face-to-face.”


	20. All or Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horde Prime launches its attack on Brightmoon.

Chapter Twenty: All or Nothing

_ _ _

“I don’t want to sound defeatist...but the odds are definitely against us on this one,” said Netossa.

And who could blame her for such an observation? What appeared to be Horde Prime’s entire army was mounting an offensive on Brightmoon, and most of the princesses were disconnected from their Runestones. Which, again, gave Horde Prime yet more influence over the planet. Thousands of robots of all shapes and sizes, all of them controlled by a megalomaniacal artificial intelligence that wanted all Gems and princesses dead. Netossa certainly had a point.

“The odds are always against these guys,” Lapis said, nodding towards Steven and the others. “But somehow, they always find a way.”

“So, this is what it has finally come to.” Everyone had been so focused on the invading army that nobody had noticed that Queen Angella had stepped outside the castle as well. “I never imagined that this is what Horde Prime was capable of. But, odds aside…” She momentarily glanced towards her daughter. “...we have to fight. To protect our world. Our people. Everything.”

Bismuth took a deep breath, psyching herself up. “Alright. Crystal Gems, this is gonna be a big one. And it ain’t gonna be easy, either.”

“Heh. When have our lives ever been easy?” said Amethyst.

Each of the Gems summoned their weapons. Bismuth shapeshifted her arms into hammers, and Lapis took flight. While the princesses, aside from Glimmer, had no powers, each one of them had equipped themself with a weapon as well. Mermista had her trident, as usual, Frosta held a staff, and Perfuma held tightly to a pike. Netossa wielded a pair of sabers, while Spinnerella had equipped a ball and chain. Bow was armed with, of course, his bow, trick arrows at the ready. Steven summoned his shield, and Connie unsheathed her sword.

“For the Honor of Grayskull!” Sword of Protection in hand, Adora was transformed into She-Ra. Beside the golden warrior, Glimmer’s staff appeared in the princess’ hand, her other hand glowing with energy. Likewise, Angella’s hands lit up as she spread her wings to their full length.

The time was almost upon them. Dropships were beginning to land not a hundred meters from their current position. Cybertroops filed out, blasters at the ready. Horde Prime would be taking no prisoners today.

Garnet adjusted her visor. “Lars, we need you in the air. Head to the  _ Sun Incinerator _ .”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” said Lars. Just before he hurried to the garden where the ship was parked, he turned around to face Steven. “Hey, Steven...if we don’t make it out of here...thanks. For everything.”

“You’re welcome, Lars.” Although just as afraid as everyone else, Steven did his best to keep up his positive attitude. “But we’ll make it out of this. I promise.” Lars smiled, before returning to his ship.

On his way, Lars passed by a troop of Brightmoon guards, led by the General. “Your majesty, we’re in this as well,” she said. “We can’t stand aside and let these machines raze our kingdom. We will fight as well.”

“I would expect nothing less, General,” Angella said. This woman’s loyalty and tenacity were unmatched by any in Brightmoon, save the queen’s daughter. “Anything you would like to add, Commander Glimmer?”

“M-me?” asked Glimmer, surprised. Her surprise was short-lived--she almost immediately gained a royal aura, which she used to rally the fighters. “Everyone, I know we have what it takes to win this. Princesses, I know you don’t have your powers right now, but if I made due in the past, so can you! Gems, fight them with everything you’ve got, since you  _ do _ have your powers! We have to do everything we can to keep them away from Entrapta and Peridot so they can complete the virus. And above all, keep them away from the Moonstone! It’s the last Runestone left, and there’s no telling what could happen if Prime takes it over. So let’s make this count!”

Weapons in hand, everyone prepared themselves for the fight. At last, the time had come. Horde Prime’s army was on their doorstep.

And they would not let it in without a fight.

Pearl lifted up her spear, pointing it towards the invaders. “Charge!” she yelled. And so they did.

Side by side, princesses, Gems, and everyone in between ran towards the robots, all fear pushed to the back of their minds. The two armies collided, and the fighting ensued.

Laser beams were launched towards the rebels en masse by the cybertroops, but they were too stalwart to let the small arms fire damage their defenses. Both Steven and Adora blocked the shots with their shields. While some took cover behind them, others split off from the main group to offer less of a target. While the cybertroops were destroyed in droves, Horde Prime had far more powerful weapons at its disposal.

A mighty cybertank took aim at She-Ra, spinning up its rotary cannons. Before it could let loose its barrage, a torrent of water slammed into it with the force of a truck. Lapis admired her handiwork before moving the water to her next target.

Also in the skies was Angella herself. Darting between enemy fire with grace and agility, the queen launched beams of light of her own at any dropships that tried to fly past Brightmoon’s walls.

Several cybertroops approached Steven, attempting to circumvent his shield. “Gem detected. Engaging termination protocols.”

Undeterred, Steven simply shouted “Connie! Stepping stone maneuver!” Understanding immediately, the girl sprinted in his direction. They waited until after the cybertroops had fired, and Connie leapt into the air above Steven. Using his shield as a springboard, Steven launched Connie at the bots, which she made quick work of with her blade.

Speaking of blades, Netossa was quickly getting the hand of working with her twin sabers. She was trained in weaponry such as this, but rarely used it, instead relying on her powers. Spinnerella was a bit less handy with her morningstar, but still picked it up rather quickly, considering. It did involve a lot of spinning, after all. She wasn’t as adept at defense with this weapon, leaving Netossa to cover up her vulnerabilities, and vice versa.

The other princesses fought valiantly as well. Mermista and Frosta were already familiar with their weapons, so bots fell to them in droves. Perfuma wasn’t used to wielding any sort of weapon, so the whole experience was unfamiliar to her. She stuck close to Pearl, who was much more adept with a stabbing weapon.

Speaking of the Gems, Amethyst’s smaller size meant that maneuvering through the cybertroops was a breeze. The robots could hardly keep track of her as she rolled through their ranks, tossed them around with her whip, and spun on to the next group. And for those that targeted her, or any other fighter, Garnet was there to keep guard. Her future vision allowed her to pinpoint the robots that were about to shoot her allies, letting her smash them apart before they could do so. Bismuth had no special strategy--not that she needed any. She was a devastating combatant combining sheer strength with ingenuity.

“Just like old times, huh, G?” she said between scuffles.

“It all makes me nostalgic,” Garnet said. She fired off her gauntlets like missiles, which blew a cluster of cybertroops to kingdom come. “This time, let’s win for real!”

Bow let loose a volley of arrows, each one piercing a cybertroop. Not a split second later, the arrows exploded, casting bits of metal aside in a wave of fireballs. Just as he knocked another one, he noticed that a cybertank was nearing the castle gates. Carefully lining up the shot, he let the arrow fly, embedding it directly underneath the massive machine’s head. It exploded as before, but this time, the robot just kept lumbering on, undisturbed by the large hole in its upper torso. “Glimmer! That one’s almost down, finish it off!”

As the war raged in, Glimmer teleported around the battlefield faster than any of them could blink. She skillfully dismantled the cybertroops by teleporting into a group and attacking with glitter blasts and staff strikes, warping away before others could get a bead on her. Sometimes, if she was lucky, she teleported in just the right way to make the cybertroops shoot each other. Upon hearing Bow’s call, she teleported over to the cybertank in question.

At first, she fired blasts of energy into the damaged bit, trying to destroy it from the outside in. When that didn’t work, she had a better idea: destroy it from the inside out. Glimmer vanished; not long after, beams of light began shooting through the cybertank’s armor from within. For the finishing move, Glimmer teleported directly through the bot’s head, flying free of the explosion she left behind her. She reappeared next to Bow to look over the scene. “That about do it?”

“Yeah, that one’s not gonna bother us any time soon. But there’s still more coming, get ready!”

Meanwhile, Adora tore through the army of robots with the force of a freight train. She shrugged off their beams like they were mosquito bites, and hacked them to pieces with her sword. “So, uh, does anyone have any sort of plan?” she asked in-between slicing bots. “I mean, I could keep this up for a while, but I don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere!”

“Just hang on a bit longer!” said Steven. “Peridot will finish that virus before you know it! Entrapta, too. I know they will!”

“Hopefully sooner rather than later,” Connie added. “It looks like Horde Prime’s bringing out the heavy hitters!”

Indeed, the cybercolossi were making their way to the front lines. One had been a challenge for the rebels to take down, but now there were nearly a dozen of them, possibly more! Weapons extended, the gigantic mechs sent a swarm of drones towards the castle.

“Stop those drones!” Garnet shouted. “They’re going after the Moonstone!”

“On it!” Pearl aimed her spear skyward, launching a rapid fire barrage of energy bullets at the bots. Angella intercepted the swarm as well with energy blasts of her own. The castle guards also took any of them out that came near to their guard posts.

However, the real problem was the cybercolossi themselves. Imposing not only in size but firepower as well, the towering robots formed an impenetrable wall in Horde Prime’s attack. Even Lapis would have struggled to hold them back one at a time, and there was far more than one present.

“What are we supposed to do!? How do we fight  _ that _ !?” said Perfuma, clutching her pike. “Should we retreat?”

“No, just keep fighting!” said Glimmer. “As long as we’re together, we can win this!”

“Easy for you to say!” said Entrapta. “You’ve still got your powers!”

“And I’d like to keep it that way!” she said. Glimmer then braced herself, preparing to teleport away...but she stayed right where she was. “What…?

“Aw, don’t tell me!” said Amethyst. “Did they get your stone, too?”

“I-I don’t know, I can’t…” Glimmer tried again to teleport away, and then to fire a blast, but only small sparkles appeared. “No, no! They can’t!”

Angella was affected by this as well. She, too, was empowered by the Moonstone, and so noticed when her beams no longer worked. Worried, she looked over at the Runestone to find that one of Horde Prime’s drones had affixed itself to the crystal. Tendrils spread across it like the vines of some sort of corrupting plant.

“Runestone successfully assimilated. Control over Etheria: ninety-five percent. Sufficient power to begin dimensional transfer. Engaging…”

It was as though the entire sky darkened, like a storm rolled in from nowhere. Bolts of lightning struck the ground, apparently brought on by whatever Horde Prime was doing. “Garnet, what’s going on out there?” asked Bismuth.

“I’m not entirely sure,” she said. “I think Horde Prime is trying to teleport the entire planet.”

“That can’t be good…” she replied.

The heroes were out of options. Their forces were spread thin. No matter how many units they destroyed, more were built. The cybercolossi focused all of their weapons on the Best Friend Squad, held at bay only by Steven’s bubble around the five of them.

“Adora!” said Steven, straining from the effort of maintaining the field. “Isn’t there anything else you can do?”

The battle had taken its toll on her. After what felt like hours of fighting, she had reverted back to her base form, too exhausted to continue. “I...I don’t know. There’s nothing left. If we can’t do anything now, then...then we lost. I...I…”

“Just hold on a bit--urgh!” Steven cried. He was pushed back by the assault, Connie braced him from beside him.

“Adora...you’re She-Ra,” Bow said.

“What? What do you mean? I know I’m She-Ra,” Adora said.

“You’re the one who stands up against adversity, no matter how bad things look. You give everyone hope, even in a situation as dire as this. That’s why I know that even though things look pretty hopeless right now, we can win. Because you’re gonna be the one leading the charge.”

Adora held the Sword of Protection tightly in her hand, staring at her reflection in the blade. “I...am She-Ra.”

“Adora, you’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met,” said Bow.

“And bravest,” Glimmer added.

“So we know that you have what it takes to lead us to tomorrow. You have the power.”

Steven still held up his bubble shield, but it was becoming dangerously cracked as the cybercolossi fired away. He couldn’t even stand; Connie needed to support him. “Adora, remember,” he said. “You’re more powerful than you think you are.”

Adora looked out at the war-torn courtyard around them. Princess and Gem alike were being pushed to their very limits holding back Horde Prime, and it was very likely that they would soon break. She wouldn’t stand for this. She wouldn’t stand idly by in the presence of evil, and watch as her friends were killed one by one, before her eyes. She had to do something. And she knew exactly what that something was.

“I have the power…” she whispered. Reinvigorated by a newfound passion, Adora held her sword aloft, her face hardened with determination. “For the Honor of Grayskull!”

_ _ _

“You, Adora, are the She-Ra. You are the Princess of Power.”

“Uh...what…?” Adora felt as though she had just woken up from a thousand-year nap. She looked around: this was the same field she had seen in her visions. The one where she had first arrived on Etheria. Not far from her, another figure stood. “L-Light Hope?”

It was her. Though Adora had seen her destroyed by Horde Prime, Light Hope now stood opposite her. “Yes, it is me,” she said. “I was able to survive Horde Prime’s attack, in a manner of speaking. My connection with Etheria has been severed, but I remain connected with you.”

Adora stood still in disbelief. “How?” she asked softly.

“I have always been by your side, Adora, and I will continue to be.” She held out her hand, indicating the Sword of Protection itself. “And though I will no longer be able to guide you, I will remain with you in spirit.”

“Light Hope...I…” Adora trailed off. She wasn’t sure whether she should be saying hello or goodbye. Instead, she knew she had to remain in the present. “Does this mean my training is complete?”

She might have imagined it, but she swore a tiny smile flashed across Light Hope’s face for the briefest second. “Adora, you have done something no other bearing your title has done for hundreds of years and dozens of She-Ras before you.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“You have broken free,” Light Hope said. “Free from the endless cycles of past sins. You have become who you were truly meant to be, and in time, your true potential will be realized. You have given me a second chance.”

Adora was confused by all of this. “Sins? What sins? I don’t understand what you mean!”

“You will, in time,” said Light Hope. The vision began to fade to white. “For now, the only sins you need to be worried about are those of Horde Prime. Now go; your allies need you!”

“Light Hope? Light Hope, wait!” Adora tried to run towards her, but just as soon as she had appeared, Light Hope was gone, the field along with her.

_ _ _

Adora hadn’t felt power like this since the first time she had transformed. The golden light of her empowered form radiated across the entire battlefield, seeming to add resolve to whoever it touched. And that wasn’t all it added.

The previously powerless princesses felt something welling up inside them; something that they usually only felt when fully charged by their Runestones. Mermista was the first to act: instinctively, upon feeling the charge, she held her hand out in front of her. Despite Horde Prime having cut her off from the Pearl, a wave burst up from the pool surrounding them, washing away several nearby cybertroops.

“Uh...Lapis?” said Mermista.

“That one wasn’t me!” the Gem said. “What’s going on? I feel all...tingly.”

Apparently, it wasn’t just the princesses that had been charged up. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis, and Bismuth’s gems had begun to glow; the light was their usual colors, tinted with gold. Somehow, She-Ra’s energy had empowered them, too.

“Ye-heah!” Frosta shouted. “Now you’re in trouble!” She thrust her arms upwards, creating a field of icicle spikes that pierced through the attacking bots.

Glimmer, teleportation regained, warped everyone out of harm’s way one by one. “Adora, you did it!” she said. “I don’t know how, or what, but  _ you did it _ !”

Even normal humans like Bow and Connie glowed a light golden sheen. “Leeeeet’s not celebrate just yet,” said the former.

“This must be what happened on Denebria,” Adora said. “I must be able to...to empower others with She-Ra. Of course--Princess of  _ Power _ !”

Another light shone just beside them: once it faded, Stevonnie stood next to the Best Friend Squad. “Then let’s use that power to end this whole thing, right now!” they said.

A loud rumbling from overhead took them all by surprise. While they expected another one of Horde Prime’s attacks, what this actually was was a far more welcoming sight. The  _ Sun Incinerator _ sped overhead, strafing several of the cybercolossi before flying into the distance, turning around for another run.

“Whoo! You show ‘em, Lars!” exclaimed Stevonnie.

“Well, now that you’re energized, think we should start hitting them even harder?” said Bow.

“My specialty!” Glimmer said. Grabbing onto Bow’s shoulder, the two of them disappeared to continue the fight.

The two who were left oversaw the battlefield from their perch. Even though they now stood a chance, Horde Prime wouldn’t go down easy. “So...you ready to give it your all?” asked Adora.

Stevonnie smiled. “Born ready!”

In near-perfect sync, the two of them raised their swords over their shoulders, pointing them at their enemies. They spoke in tandem: “Let’s finish this!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo, this one ended up being a bit longer than I intended! Length aside, we're starting to get into the really good stuff now! Stay tuned!


	21. Fall of Prime, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the battle escalates, Peridot's plan to stop Horde Prime for good is implemented.

Chapter Twenty-One: Fall of Prime, Part 1

_ _ _

Back inside the castle, Peridot and Entrapta paid little mind to the fighting outside. Well, Entrapta didn’t; Peridot just did her best to ignore it, which wasn’t easy. But it was necessary, considering that they were almost finished with the virus.

Technically speaking, they were already finished. The virus was ready to be uploaded, it just first needed to be  _ down _ loaded into Entrapta’s data pad so that it could subsequently be transferred into Horde Prime’s hive mind. It was a fairly easy, if complex, process.

“Any second now!” said Entrapta. “Then we just have to catch a cybertroop to load it into!”

“That reminds me,” Peridot said. “How exactly are we going to get this virus into Horde Prime? We’d need some kind of access port…”

“Luckily, we have one!” said Entrapta. “Prime’s cybertroops are directly based on my Multi-Bot. I included an access port in its lower back for updates, and luckily, the cybertroops have them, too!”

“That should do nicely!” Peridot said. “Only instead of giving Prime an update, we’ll give it a down-date! ...See, because instead of ‘up’, it’s ‘down’, and...okay, nevermind…”

Emily beeped from her new home, indicating to the pair that the upload was complete. Peridot unplugged the tablet from the computer installation they had set up, Entrapta picking it up. “It’s done! Let’s go!”

Both Peridot and Entrapta ran outside as fast as their legs (and hair) could carry them. While they expected to see fighting, it was the state of the sky that was most concerning. In addition to the unexplained presence of stormclouds, the whole of the sky seemed to glow with an eerie red light. Large cracks seemed to be appearing in the sky itself, dots of lights appearing within them.

“Oh my stars…” said Peridot.

“Exactly!” said Entrapta. “Somehow, I think Horde Prime is attempting to teleport all of Etheria back into the main universe!”

“Something tells me that we should stop that,” Peridot said.

“Agreed.” Once they made it outside, finding a cybertroop was easy--they were everywhere, swarming the entire castle. “Peridot, try and restrain it!”

Peridot attempted to use her magnetic powers to hold the cybertroop still. This was easier said than done, however. “Quick, upload the virus!” Peridot said, struggling to hold it. “It’s a lot harder to hold something that can fight back!”

The cybertroop was indeed attempting to break free from Peridot’s grip, slowly but surely training its blasters on the pair. “Right, got it!” said Entrapta. She hurried over to the bot, plugging the jack into its slot. Its visor blinked and flashed with colors for a few moments, until it went back to red, standing completely still.

Peridot set it back down, where it just stood there, unmoving. “Um...did we do it?” she asked.

Rather than simply shut down as the two had expected, the cybertroop then extended its cannons at the pair. “Antivirus programs active. Resuming termination protocols.”

“Oh, come on!” exclaimed Peridot, her and Entrapta bracing for impact. But before the robot could open fire, a large white shape descended from the skies. Gored by the unicorn’s horn, the robot sparked before being thrown into the distance.

“Did somebody say... _ Swift Wind _ ?” The former horse threw his mane to the side, sparkling spectacularly.

“I don’t understand it!” said Entrapta, ignoring him completely. “It should have worked perfectly! Horde Prime’s systems should have all shut down by now! Unless…”

“Unless what?” asked Swift Wind. “Also, what is this conversation about?”

“Unless Prime got some kind of antiviral systems from somewhere else.” Her face lit up with realization. “Somewhere like...that First Ones ship!” She pointed towards a ship in the planet’s lower atmosphere.

“Wait...I recognize that ship!” said Peridot. The ship in question wasn’t the one Horde Prime had taken from Earth. For one, it was orange in color, and longer rather than taller. “That’s Hessonite’s ship!”

“Who now?” said Swift Wind.

“I don’t know either, but Peridot seems happy about it!” Entrapta said. “Peridot, can this ‘Hessonite’ person help us with our Horde Prime situation?”

“I hope so!” said Peridot. “I’m sure she’ll be willing to, in any case.” She stared up at the Gem vessel. “I need to get up to that ship!”

“Talking horse, do you think you can fly that high?” asked Entrapta.

“That’s a hard pass from me,” said Swift Wind. “But what about that pink kid? He has a ship.”

“Of course! Lars!” said Peridot. She ran over to Swift Wind’s side, trying and failing to climb onto his back. After several seconds of watching her attempts, Swift Wind just pulled her on with this wing. “Onward, steed! To Steven! You coming, Entrapta?”

“You go on ahead,” Entrapta said. “There’s something I’d like to take care of first…”

“Alright, let’s go!” said Swift Wind, taking off into the sky.

Entrapta turned to the side, taking note of the Cybercolossi laying siege to Brightmoon. “Emily, I think I have an idea,” she said. “It might get us killed, but on the other hand, it might work really well!”

_ _ _

“Lapis! Lapis!” The blue Gem turned towards the voice, surprised by the unusual sight of Peridot riding on the back of a winged unicorn. “Lapis, look! Hessonite’s here! Did you notice?”

“Uh...I did,” said Lapis, unsure of how to react to this sight. “I’m not sure if I should ask what she’s doing here, or why you’re riding a flying horse.”

“Well,  _ I’m _ not going to be riding  _ her _ !” said Swift Wind. “It would take all day to catch up to you!”

“Now come on, we need to get to Steven to get to Lars to get to Hessonite!” said Peridot.

Lapis shrugged, following the curious pair. It was a fairly straightforward plan, if a bit disjointed. “I’ll flag down Lars, you go get Steven!”

Down on the ground, Steven and Connie were now Stevonnie, fighting the cybertroops with sword and shield in hand. Beside them, Adora fought with sword that was also shield in hand. The two of them were quite in sync as they sliced and bashed their way through the attackers.

“Steven! I mean, large human that is partially Steven!” cried Peridot as Swift Wind touched down beside them, and she disembarked.

“Hi, Peridot!” said Stevonnie, looking away from the battle for only a moment. “Is the virus almost done?”

“It’s done already, but Horde Prime has something stopping it!” she said. “Entrapta thinks that if we destroy the First Ones ship that Prime has, it’ll disable the protective software, and the virus should work as planned!”

“So, uh, is that the big orange ship, or the big purple one?” asked Adora.

“The purple one,” said Peridot. “We need to get on the orange one to destroy it, though. ...And here comes our ride!”

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ moved in to hover above them, trying to land among the carnage. Unfortunately, Horde Prime seemed to realize that something was up: its cybertroops began to converge on the area, firing on Lars’ ship, preventing it from landing. The ship flew off to avoid the barrage.

“Great, now what are we supposed to do!?” said Peridot.

“I think I have an idea,” said Stevonnie. “Garnet! Things are getting pretty bad out here! I think we need a giant woman!”

Nearby, Garnet nodded. “Gems! On me!” Amethyst and Pearl converged on her position, where all three of them struck a pose. Their bodies became pure light as their gemstones changed color, projected high into the air as their forms became one. Within seconds, the three had become one in the form of a truly giant woman: the towering Alexandrite. The mighty fusion opened her lower mouth and let loose a ground-shaking roar at the cybercolossi.

“Well, that should help…” said Adora.

Indeed it should. The cybercolossi immediately focused on this new threat, opening fire. Alexandrite held up her arms to block the lasers, before returning fire. A jet of fire shot out of her mouth, momentarily disabling the gigantic robots. She turned to face Stevonnie and Adora. “Go! Now!”

With her keeping the colossi busy, Lars was finally able to land. The  _ Sun Incinerator _ ’s door slid open, revealing that Lapis had already boarded. “Quick, we don’t have all day!” she said. Stevonnie, Adora, and Peridot hurried to get onboard, the door closing behind them.

“So, where to?” asked Lars.

“That big ship up there!” said Peridot pointing it out.

“Alrighty. Destination set, let’s get going!” Lars and his crew engaged the afterburners, lifting the ship up into the sky, well out of the cybercolossi’s reach.

On the ground, although she fought fiercely, Alexandrite was outnumbered. The cybercolossi just kept firing, preventing her from getting any good hits in. Frosta was the one to notice this. “You guys, we have to help! Steven’s friends are in trouble!”

“But what can we do?” asked Perfuma. “It isn’t like we can combine our forms into a giant woman, too!”

Mermista looked over at the lake beside them with all the water that entailed. “Maybe we can…” she said.

“What do you mean?” Perfuma asked.

Mermista began lifting the water into the air. “Just follow my lead!” she said.

_ _ _

Luckily, Hessonite and her crew didn’t recognize Lars’ ship as a threat. As soon as the  _ Sun Incinerator _ requested permission to dock, the doors opened. They might have just been surprised to see another Gem ship present on this strange planet.

The doors of the smaller ship opened as well, its inhabitants spilling out onto the deck of the larger vessel. The trio of Garnets were waiting for them, and were quite surprised to see some familiar faces.

“Hello again, Hessonite!” said Peridot. “I imagine you weren’t expecting to see me and Lapis again!”

“I wasn’t, certainly not at a time like this!” Hessonite said. “I imagine your interdimensional trip went as planned, then?”

“Trip?” said Peridot. “Oh, yeah, with the Lock! So much has been happening lately, I forgot all about that! But yes, it did go well. Skeletor was defeated, and peace returned to the universe!”

“Too bad it didn’t last long…” said Lapis. “Anyway, how did you all get here?”

“Something is affecting the metastability of reality in this sector of space,” said Demantoid. “This planet is locked in another dimension, but breaches of it are appearing all over the universe.”

“That must be Horde Prime’s doing,” said Adora. “I don’t know what it’s planning, but we have to stop it before it does!”

“I would ask who your friends are, but we don’t have time for chit-chat,” said Hessonite. “She is right; we have to stop Horde Prime!”

“And that is exactly why we came here!” Peridot replied. “We actually have a plan to take it out.”

As Peridot explained to Hessonite their plan to destroy the First Ones ship, the others got acquainted with her comrades. “So, it’s nice to see you guys getting along,” said Stevonnie. “Last time I ran into Hessonite, it didn’t go over so well.”

“And you are?” asked Demantoid.

“Oh, right,” they said. “I’m Stevonnie. I’m a fusion between Steven and Connie.”

“I see,” she said. “A human fusion. You will be more than welcome in this place. All life forms seeking refuge are welcome aboard the  _ Crystallon _ .

“Hang on a minute,” said Rhodonite, cutting in. “You said fusions are welcome here?”

“Correct,” said Demantoid. “All off-colored Gems, as well as those on the run from the Diamonds, may stay here as long as they desire. We currently have no organics onboard, though I imagine they would be welcome as well.”

“T-this place sounds amazing!” Rhodonite said. “Lars, do you think we could stay here for a while once this whole Horde Prime thing is dealt with?”

Meanwhile, Pyrope was examining Adora. “I’ve never seen a Gem like you before. Would you happen to be a fusion?”

“Uh...Not that I know of,” Adora answered. “I mean, maybe. I guess it depends on how She-Ra works, ‘cause I’m kind of combined with She-Ra, so…”

“By the way, Pyrope, is that little Ruby still following you around?” asked Lapis.

As if summoned, the Ruby in question appeared beside her companion. However, something was quite different about her. Namely, that she now wore a dress nearly identical to the one Pyrope herself wore, sized down to the smaller Gem. “Unfortunately…” groaned Pyrope.

“Actually, I go by ‘Duchess’ now,” the Ruby said. “I felt like reinventing myself since we last met.”

“Swear to stars, sometimes I think I liked her better when we first met,” Pyrope mumbled.

“Everyone, may I have your attention?” said Hessonite. Everyone turned to face her. “Peridot and I have been discussing the best way to proceed.” She looked down to Peridot. “Would you like to start us off?”

Peridot nodded. “Well, Hessonite believes that our target, the First Ones ship in Prime’s possession, is too heavily-armored to be damaged by any of our weapons.”

“I also believe, however, that the ship also possesses a highly-potent energy core,” Hessonite added. “If First Ones and Gem technology are as similar as Peridot here believes, then rupturing this core should be enough to destroy the ship.”

“And the only way we’ll be able to do that would be to infiltrate it personally,” said Peridot.

“Why do I get the feeling that I’m the one who has to do that?” said Adora. “Welp...guess I’ve done worse.”

“Don’t worry,” said Stevonnie. “We’ll all be right there with you!”

“Exactly!” said Peridot. “Right with you! From here. On this ship. While you’re on  _ that _ ship.”

“Er...right,” said Stevonnie. “Anyone else?”

“Negative,” said Demantoid.

“Positively not,” said Pyrope.

“I can’t abandon my crew,” said Hessonite.

“Unless there’s water up there, there’s not a whole lot I could do…” said Lapis.

“Well, that’s fine,” said Stevonnie. “There’s still us! And Lars is coming, right?”

“Of course!” he said. “How do you think you’re getting over there in the first place?”

“Lars will fly the two of you over to Prime’s ship,” said Hessonite. “We will provide covering fire from the  _ Crystallon _ . Once you are on board, I imagine you will face heavy resistance.”

Adora slung her sword over her shoulder. “Luckily for us, we’re prepared to offer heavy...what’s the opposite of resistance?”

“Whatever it is, you should probably get to offering it!” said Pyrope. “Horde Prime is sending dropships our way!”

“Aaand that’s our cue!” said Stevonnie. “Let’s take off! Everyone else, stay safe!”

Adora and Stevonnie hurried aboard the  _ Sun Incinerator _ , where Lars and co. were waiting. “Wish we could’ve stayed longer, but we’re on the clock!” said Lars. “Prepare for takeoff!” Slowly lifting up off the deck, the ship then sped out into the air, looping around the  _ Crystallon _ .

“Target in sight, Captain!” said left-Rutile. “First Ones ship spotted!” right-Rutile added.

“Things look pretty bad down there from up here,” said Stevonnie, looking down at the carnage on the surface. “I hope we can end this quickly.”

“Wait!” Everyone was startled by Padparadscha’s sudden cry. “Watch out for Emerald!”

“Paddy, what are you…” said Lars, trailing off once he realized what she had said. “...Did you say Emerald?”

“Captain?” said Rhodonite. “I’m picking up an unidentified object on the radar. It’s too big to be a dropship…”

Dreading what he would see when he did so, Lars turned the viewscreens to the rear of the ship. The crew was greeted by the unwelcome sight of the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ bearing down on them. Clearly, Emerald was out for blood this time.

“Nooot gooood…” said Fluorite.

_ _ _

“Perfuma! Plant frame!” said Mermista.

“Got it!” Perfuma drew up some vines from beneath the ground, which she shaped into a roughly humanoid form. Twisting together, these vines would provide stability for the team’s ‘fusion’. Mermista then sent up torrents of water, which became the main body.

“And I’ll form the head!” said Frosta, working her way up the golem, freezing the outer layer of water as she did so. She near-completely submerged herself where the statue’s head would have been, creating a helmet of ice for herself. The combined entity of plants, water, and ice was complete. “Come get some, Horde Prime!”

Nearby, Entrapta had seen this all. She was certainly impressed by this display of power, but she was more focused on getting over to one of the cybercolossi that both Alexandrite and the trio of princesses prepared to do battle with. “Okay Emily, I’ve rerouted A.I., and I’m preparing to upload. Remember, we only get one shot at this, so remember to keep Prime out of your head!” Emily beeped.

Frosta raised the fists of her titanic suit of armor; Mermista and Perfuma aided her, controlling their portions of the suit from its shoulders. They threw one of the fists forwards, and it connected with a cybercolossus, staggering it.

Alexandrite pulled herself up, summoning a huge hammer from her gems. She swung the weapon with all of her strength, finishing the robot off.

“Oookay, maybe now isn’t the best time for this,” Entrapta wondered aloud. Nevertheless, she worked her way through the carnage, dodging explosions and cybertroops that came her way. She soon reached her target; a cybercolossus.

Using her hair, Entrapta worked her way up the titan’s leg, with the ultimate goal of reaching the port on its lower back. Luckily for her, it didn’t notice her on the journey. Upon arriving at the port, she held the cord attached to her tablet in front of her. “Here goes nothing!” She plugged it in, hoping for the best.

Both the pad and robot were lit up as streams of code flowed from one to the other. Much like when the virus was uploaded earlier, the robot’s visor flashed multiple colors, before it finally stood still.

Entrapta climbed up to the machine’s shoulder. “Emily?”

The cybercolossus’ visor lit back up; a shade of lilac rather than red this time. A drone rang out from the massive bot, sounding like a much deeper version of Emily’s usual beeping.

“Yay!” exclaimed Entrapta, hugging the robot’s head. “Alright, Emily, let’s go save the world! ...again!”

The Gems and princesses certainly weren’t expecting one of the cybercolossi to attack its allies. Evidently, they weren’t either, taken completely by surprise by the assault. The cybercolossus controlled by Emily fired at the invading robots, punching any that got in her way. Entrapta waved at her allies from atop her new death machine.

“Hi guys!” she said. “Look at this! Emily hijacked one of Prime’s death machines, isn’t it great!?”

“En...Entrapta!?” said Perfuma.

“Yep!” the girl responded. “How are you all doing over here?”

A sudden voice pierced through the air: “Renewing termination protocols.” The voice had come from an entire new battalion of cybercolossi, making their way across the carnage, directly towards them.

“Everybody get ready, things are getting real!” said Mermista.

“Um, I feel like things were ‘real’ already…” said Perfuma.

Entrapta stood atop Emily’s new form. Frosta, Mermista, and Perfuma put up their golem’s fists. And Alexandrite stood at the front of the defenders as Horde Prime’s forces approached. “No more chatter! Steel yourselves!” said Alexandrite, summoning one of each of her components’ weapons. “This fight is only beginning!”


	22. Fall of Prime, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the battle rages on on the ground, Lars and crew attempt to escape from Emerald.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Fall of Prime, Part 2

_ _ _

Entrapta kicked off their assault. “Emily! All weapons, fire! Full steam ahead!” Emily opened fire with every cannon on her new cybercolossus body. The enemy cybercolossi returned fire, but their attack was diluted amongst the three targets. This made it that much easier for the princess trio to launch an attack of their own.

All three of them combined their powers to urge the golem forwards. Cybertroops were crushed underneath its icy feet as it stomped towards its foes. The massive creation sent one of its mighty fists forward, slamming it into a cybercolossus. The giant machine staggered backwards, finally falling after a second punch connected.

Alexandrite took advantage of this, leaping on top of the fallen robot. She drove two of Pearl’s spears into its body, putting it down for good. Two more cybercolossi began to advance on the fusion. She responded by summoning Opal’s bow, firing an arrow through one’s chest; it fell to one knee, disabled for now. Alexandrite stunned the other with Sugilite’s flail, before using the weapon to decapitate the first.

When the second cybercolossus got its bearings, Emily grabbed it from behind, attempting to throw it aside. It stumbled, but didn’t fall; this prompted Emily to fire all her weapons on the bot. Under the sustained barrage, the cybercolossus’ armor was slowly chipped away, until it was nothing more than a thin layer of molten slag. She then finished it off with a punch. “ Nice one, Emily!” said Entrapta.

Frosta punted a cybertank as she stomped forwards, taking down yet another cybercolossus with a mighty uppercut. However, she was soon after surrounded by many more of them, attempting to cut her off from her allies. “Mermista!” she shouted. “Sword me!”

The water princess immediately understood what she meant. Mermista pulled a flow of water up towards the trio. Reaching out both her actual hand and her ice hand, Frosta grabbed hold of the surge of water. Ice spread across it, shaping the waves into a hilt, and finally, a blade.

With a ferocious lunge, Frosta swung the ice sword upwards, cleaving off one of the cybercolossi’s arms. She whirled around, slicing through each of the robots with the blade’s tip. Finally, as a finishing move, she leapt into the air, cleaving her target clean in half.

“Great work, Frosta!” said Perfuma.

“Call me Winter’s Bane!” Frosta replied with a grin.

Alexandrite used Amethyst’s whip to grab a cybercolossus by the wrist, stopping it before it could throw a punch at Entrapta. She pulled it around to face her, smashing Garnet’s gauntlet into its face.

WIth the attack avoided, Emily activated her most powerful attack. Electricity crackled around her chest as energy coalesced into the massive laser. The beam fired, tearing swaths through Horde Prime’s ground troops. Emily let out a drone of triumph.

“Where do these things even keep coming from!?” asked Mermista. She tripped up a cybercolossus with her water powers, giving Frosta an opportunity to lop its head clean off.

“Wherever it is, all we can do is keep fighting,” said Frosta. “We can’t let Horde Prime get into Brightmoon! I--Entrapta, look out!”

A cybercolossus had taken a page out of Emily’s book, and fired its chest beam at the pair. Frosta lunged between them, blocking the laser with the golem’s arm. The ice shattered and water spilled out as the limb threatened to fall to the ground.

“Hang on!” Perfuma’s vines shot out from within the golem’s arm, latching on to both parts of the severed limb. The plants pulled it together, lashing over the wound like a bandage.

Mermista tested the arm, and the makeshift tourniquet held. “All right, quick thinking, flower girl!”

Alexandrite had immediately sprang atop the attacking cybercolossus, holding it in place from behind. With the fusion holding it still, Entrapta had Emily open fire on the immobilized target until it was destroyed.

“Whoo! Yay, Emily!” She turned towards the other fighters. “And yay, princesses and giant woman! We make a pretty good team!”

Standing back to back to back, all of them prepared to renew their fight with the cybercolossi, which, no matter how many they destroyed, would not stop hounding them. “I hope the others are doing better than we are!” said Perfuma.

_ _ _

“All hands, evasive maneuvers!” said Lars. “We have to get to that ship! Don’t let Emerald distract us!”

“That might be a bit hard to do, considering!” said left-Rutile. “She’s right on top of us!” added right-Rutile.

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ sped through Etheria’s lower atmosphere, the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ close behind. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and Emerald was more determined than ever to get her hands on what was rightfully hers.

From the bridge of her flagship, Emerald watched excitedly as her old ship came closer and closer to being in her grasp. Her face split open wide into a maniacal grin. “All stations, fire on that vessel,” she said, barely maintaining her composure. “But do not destroy it, under any circumstances! Disable only! If you damage my  _ Sun Incinerator _ beyond repair, so help me I will shatter you to pieces myself!” Her subordinates obeyed, fearing what would happen to Emerald’s already-deteriorating sanity should her precious shop be damaged.

Missiles were launched from the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ , zeroing in on the off-colors’ ship. They were only narrowly able to avoid the explosives, which detonated mere feet away from the ship’s hull. Sparks of electricity scraped the side of the ship, momentarily causing the navigational systems to go on the fritz.

“Watch out for those electro-missiles!” warned Padparadscha. “A direct hit from one of those, and we’ll be completely disabled!”

“Thanks for the warning, Paddy!” said Lars. “Climb higher, we’ll see if we can lose her up there!”

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ ascended into the upper atmosphere, the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ following close behind. “Uh, isn’t she in a  _ space _ ship?” said Adora. “I know I’m not an expert, but I don’t think going into space will do us any good!”

“Well, do you have any better ideas?” asked Lars.

“I do!” said Stevonnie. “Look!”

They pointed out in front of the ship, indicating a rift in space-time before them. It led to somewhere in the main universe, and was more than large enough for their ship to fit through.

“Good spot, Stevonnie!” said both Rutiles.

“Uh, I’m not so sure about that!” said Rhodonite. “These portals are highly unstable! They’re opening and closing at random...if we aren’t careful, we could end up with no way back to Etheria!”

“Or Emerald could be!” said Lars. “Full speed ahead!”

Dodging laser beams and electro-missiles, Lars and crew maneuvered the ship through the portal. Emerald was still on their tail, clinging as close to her beloved starship as hers would allow. The two vessels emerged somewhere in the middle of space; off in the distance was the hollowed-out remains of a planet that was clearly a Gem colony.

“No good, she’s still coming!” said Stevonnie.

“With how much she’s been on us for the past few months, I’d be surprised if she  _ wasn’t _ !” said Lars. “We just need to find another portal and try again!”

Emerald was on the edge of her seat, practically standing up. “Don’t let him escape!” she yelled. “Get him!  _ Get him _ !”

“Theeeeere’s ooooone!” said Fluorite, pointing out another portal in the distance. The  _ Sun Incinerator _ sped towards it, ending up back on Etheria.

Everyone shouted in alarm upon realizing that they were hurtling at full speed towards the ocean. They were able to pull up at the last moment, speeding off just above the water’s surface. Emerald’s ship, being bigger, wasn’t able to pull up in time, splashing into the sea. This couldn’t deter her, however, as she immediately surfaced to resume her chase.

The chase had led the two ships to the kingdom of Salineas. Just like every other location on the planet, it had become completely overrun by Horde Prime. Hundreds of robots stood guard beyond the kingdon’s walls, most notably a handful of cybercolossi that shifted their focus on the team.

“Oh, come on!” cried Rhodonite. “Didn’t we have it hard enough!?”

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ pulled off more evasive maneuvers, this time from the cybercolossi. Lasers collided with the hull as the ship narrowly avoided being struck down by one of the titanic machine’s arms.

Emerald was caught in the crossfire as well, returning fire on the mechs. They engaged with her as well, though the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ was able to tank more of their attacks.

“Alright, there’s another portal. Let’s try this again!” said Lars. The ship sped towards it, with Emerald’s not far behind. Her’s had been a bit banged-up by the encounter, but not enough to deter her pursuit.

As if speeding down towards an ocean wasn’t bad enough, this portal put the two ships just beyond the surface of a star. Fittingly enough, the sudden appearance of a sun caused Rhodonite to exclaim “Oh my stars!”

“It would seem so!” said Adora.

Both ships sped along the star’s surface, swerving left and right to avoid solar flares. Emerald didn’t bother avoiding them, simply powering through them. She attempted to fire more missiles, but they were prematurely detonated by the heat of the sun. Luckily for both parties, another portal soon came into view.

The chase was now transported to above the empty desert that was the Crimson Waste. For once, the area was completely devoid of Horde Prime’s forces. Adora decided to question this.

“Hey, where are all the robots?” she asked. “We are on Etheria right now, right?”

“Beats me,” said Stevonnie. “Actually, right now, I’d be more worried about Emerald…”

Lars’ crew had to bob and weave harder than ever to avoid the barrage of missiles that Emerald was hurling at them. The radar, navigation, just about everything aside from the controls were going haywire from the sheer amount of EMPs. Spying another portal, Rhodonite hurriedly navigated them through it. Where this one lead caught everyone by surprise, even more so than the star.

They were on Homeworld. Stevonnie recognized it all too well, given that they had Steven’s memories. Lars and the off-colors were quite familiar with it as well.

“No, not this place again!” cried Padparadscha.

All around them, the planet seemed to be at war. Cybertroops and Gems clashed on the surface and on the air, explosions ringing out from all angles. Horde Prime had taken its directive to its logical conclusion, and taken the fight directly to Gemkind’s doorstep.

“This is worse than I could have imagined,” said Stevonnie. “Horde Prime really does want all Gems gone…”

“This...this  _ is _ terrible,” said right-Rutile. “Homeworld may be bad, but...nobody deserves this,” added left-Rutile.

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ swerved to avoid buildings in its way, many of which the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ was too bulky to avoid. “How are we supposed to lose her with that monstrosity?” asked Adora.

“Hang on...I think I may have an idea!” said Padparadscha. “Rhodonite, didn’t you say that the portals are unstable?”

“They are!” she answered. “Which is why this whole thing was a bad idea!”

“Then we just have to trick Emerald into shooting one!” Padparadscha said. “Where is the next one?”

“There’s one up in the atmosphere,” said right-Rutile. “Altering course,” left-Rutile said.

Both ships ascended away from the cities gripped by conflict. Emerald continued her assault, despite the lack of results. Laser beams skimmed past the ship, and missiles exploded just beside it.

“Hold...hold…” said Lars. The pair of ships had almost reached the portal. Emerald prepared to fire. “...Now!”

“The  _ Sun Incinerator _ swerved to the side, avoiding the beams hurled its way. They struck the portal, the effect being very similar to a large object being thrown into a pool of water. The portal flickered and rippled, seconds away from destabilizing. The ship sped up, barely making it through the portal. Emerald was not as lucky: the portal vanished just as the  _ Destiny Destroyer _ would have passed through it, leaving it hovering above Homeworld, with no way to Etheria and Lars.

“What...!?” Emerald said, still processing what had happened. “That...that’s impossible. No. No, no,  _ no, no no NO NO _ !” She sprang to her feet, smashing the console before her to pieces with her fist. “LAAAAAAAAARS!”

_ _ _

Cheers erupted from the off-colors as their ship emerged from the portal, back in the skies of Etheria. “Woo! We did it! Great work, everyone!” said Lars. “Now we can...oh, right. I almost forgot about Horde Prime.”

“Yeah, we should probably deal with it,” Adora said. “How far away from Brightmoon are we?”

“Not too far, thankfully,” said left-Rutile. “We should get to Horde Prime’s ship in a few minutes.”

The  _ Sun Incinerator _ sped off into the distance, towards the ship in question. “We should probably have some sort of plan,” said Stevonnie. “How should we approach this?”

“Well, your Gem friends said that the ship’s outer armor is pretty much impenetrable,” said Adora. “We’ll need to find somewhere to board it that isn’t heavily defended. Speaking of, we should prepare for heavy resistance once we’re on board, and probably before.”

“That ship’s definitely got turrets,” said Lars. “And they’re gonna be firing at us as soon as we get close.”

“Weeeee caaaaan ooooonlyyy staaaaay theeeeere foooor sooo loooong,” said Fluorite. “Youuuuu haaave tooo beee quiiiiick.”

“Got it,” said Stevonnie. “Hey Adora? Do you have skydiving on Etheria?”

“No,” Adora answered. “But I’m pretty sure I know what you have in mind.”

Before long, the First Ones colony ship came into view, like a giant castle hovering above the planet. What appeared to be a layer of smoke surrounding it was revealed to actually be a fleet of dropships once the team got close. Each one of these started towards them once they approached.

“Uh-oh,” said Rhodonite. “Captain? We’ve got bogeys incoming. A  _ lot _ of bogeys…”

“Don’t worry about these small fries,” Lars said. “Focus on that prize catch!”

Swerving past incoming ships and cannon fire, the  _ Sun Incinerator _ made a beeline towards Horde Prime’s base of operations. While it had no weapons of its own, luckily the dropships didn’t either. After weathering the worst of it, the ship located a spot on the First Ones vessel that the cannons didn’t cover. This would be the point of insertion.

“Okay, this next part might be a little tricky,” said Lars. “We have no way to dock, so you’ll have to just jump out. I know it’s not ideal, but we’ll just have to make the best of a bad situation.”

“Hey, it won’t be the first time I did that!” said Adora.

Stevonnie created a bubble around their mouth and nose to keep in oxygen. “Adora...can She-Ra breathe in space?”

“...You know, I’ve never thought about that,” said Adora. She shapeshifted the Sword of Protection into a mask, placing it over her mouth like Stevonnie had done. “Better safe than sorry, like Bow always says.”

“We’re here!” said Rutile. “Prepare to drop!”

Everyone strapped in as the ship’s door swung open. Air rushed out, almost pulling Stevonnie and Adora with it. The two of them were able to hold steady long enough to get a running start, leaping towards the ship below. “Good luck out there!” said Lars.

“We’ll see you on the other side!” called Stevonnie. The two of them hurtled through the air, or lack thereof, just close enough to Etheria for the planet’s gravity to pull them down towards the ship.

For the first few feet, everything seemed to be going according to plan. There was nothing in their path, and they were right on target. What nobody considered, however, was the dropships. One flew right beneath them; Adora accidentally landed on it, and was carried off back towards Lars’ ship.

“Adora!” cried Stevonnie. Adora jumped off of the dropship, but she had been carried too far away. At her current trajectory, she was going to miss the First Ones ship entirely. “She’s not gonna make it!”

Thinking quickly, Stevonnie summoned a shield, throwing it to Adora like a discus. Adora caught it, placing it beneath her feet. She then used the shield like a makeshift platform, leaping off of it toward her target. Both she and Stevonnie landed safely on top of the ship; a rough landing, but a landing nonetheless.

Stevonnie propped themself up, getting their bearings. “So, you okay?”

“Yeah,” Adora replied. “You?”

“I’m good.” Both of them stood up, facing the large wall in front of them. Stevonnie looked at her arm for a moment, waving it back and forth. “You know, this doesn’t feel like space. It feels like there’s air here.”

Adora shifted her sword back to its base form, taking an experimental breath. “Feels like air to me,” she said. “That’s First Ones tech for you.”

“So, shall we?” Stevonnie said.

Both of them returned their focus to the wall. They each swung their sword diagonally, creating an ‘X’ on the wall. Then, with synchronized kicks, they busted a hole more than large enough for them to fit through.

Adora gestured through the new entryway. “After you!”


	23. The Honor of Grayskull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Stevonnie prepare for a final showdown against Horde Prime.

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Honor of Grayskull

_ _ _

Surprisingly enough, no cybertroops were immediately present to stop the pair as they strolled through the halls of the First Ones ship. Both Stevonnie and Adora had expected to be immediately beset by the robotic guards upon breaching the ship’s walls, but not so much as a single sentry was present to greet them.

“So...is that it?” asked Adora. “I was kind of expecting more than this.”

“Yeah, this whole place feels a bit empty,” replied Stevonnie. “Maybe all of Prime’s robots are fighting down on the surface.”

“That just seems like bad tactics if you ask me,” Adora said. “I mean, what happens if someone gets into your base? Who’s gonna stop them?”

After a bit of walking, the hall opened up into an enormous room that appeared to be a factory. Large enough to be a building in its own right, hundreds of mechanical arms pounded and welded metal to assemble just as many cybertroops, which were then carried into a waiting dropship to be ferried to the planet’s surface. Cybertanks and cybercolossi were also being produced, these larger units being carried by dropships attached to their backs.

The pair ducked to the side, just in case any cybertroop happened to look up. “Yup, this is definitely the right place,” said Stevonnie.

“No wonder Prime is winning,” said Adora. “I’ve never seen so many bots in one place, not even back in the Horde!”

“Alright, we have to shut this place down somehow,” Stevonnie said. “But how do we go about doing that?”

“In my experience, all machines have some kind of power source,” Adora said. “This ship should have some kind of core. Once we find it and destroy it, it’ll be goodnight Prime.”

“Works for me,” said Stevonnie. “But how do we find the core in a ship this huge?”

Adora shrugged. “It’s gotta be around here  _ some _ where, right?”

Stevonnie nodded. “Let’s head towards the middle,” they said. “That’s usually where a core would be.”

Sneaking past the watchful optics below them, the pair made their way into the next room. This one was just as empty as the first, with no robots in sight. This lack of guards did give them some time to appreciate their surroundings.

“You know, this place looks a lot like the Crystal Castle,” said Adora. “I guess that makes sense, what with them both being First Ones and all…”

“Funny, I was going to say it reminded me of Gem ships,” Stevonnie said. “Though, I guess now we know why that would be.”

“Huh?” asked Adora.

“Because the First Ones made the Gems, apparently,” said Stevonnie. Their hand went down to Steven’s gemstone. “You know, I never really thought about the Gems coming from somewhere. I guess I was just always concerned about them trying to destroy the Earth and everything.”

Adora was silent for a moment before speaking again. “And the First Ones made Horde Prime, too,” she said. “Probably out of revenge for the Gems destroying their home.”

“Do you think Horde Prime would have stopped trying to destroy us if it knew about the Crystal Gems?” asked Stevonnie. “If it knew that they rebelled?”

“That’s more of a question for Entrapta,” said Adora. “Who knows? From what I’ve seen, Horde Prime just wants to destroy everything it doesn’t like.”

“Yeah,” said Stevonnie. “Just like Homeworld…”

Before long, the two came upon a massive door blocking their path. Whatever was behind this door was clearly important, as there didn’t seem to be any obvious way of breaking through it, let alone getting it to open. Adora tried cutting through it with her sword, but the effort didn’t leave so much as a scratch.

She continued striking the door, until Stevonnie stopped her. “Alright, I think we need to come up with something different,” they said.

“Like what? Ask it to open?” said Adora.

“I mean...this is a First Ones ship,” Stevonnie said. “Maybe She-Ra can do something?”

“Guess it’s worth a shot,” said Adora. Walking back up to the door, she looked up at it and said in her most authoritative voice, “Eternia.”

“Princess of Power located.” Horde Prime’s voice came from all around them.

“Uh...open,” Adora said. “Open door. Access. Grant access.”

“Command denied,” said Horde Prime. While the large door did not open, several smaller ones located around the room did; hidden passages among the walls, revealing cybertroops that began to surround the pair.

“Well, that backfired!” said Stevonnie. Both of them held up their swords, ready to do battle.

“Princess detected. Gem detected. Engaging termination protocols.”

All around them, the cybertroops opened fire. Stevonnie summoned a shield, while Adora simply tanked the beams. The pair charged in opposite directions, slicing through the opposition with their blades. Cybertroops fell in droves against their combined attack. During the battle, Stevonnie and Adora seemed to be in perfect sync with one another. They expertly maneuvered around the battlefield in tandem, combining their abilities to dispatch every last cybertroop. Their battle was almost like a dance, so rehearsed their movements seemed.

In no time at all, the cybertroops that had attacked them lay defeated on the floor. “Ha! How’s that feel, Prime?” asked Adora.

“Initial assault unsuccessful,” Horde Prime said. “Now engaging anti-princess countermeasures.”

“Ooh...that’s probably not good,” said Stevonnie.

Slowly, the massive door began to open. Steam spilled out of the room, filling the hallway with a foggy haze. The pair could barely see anything, making a sneak attack likely. And indeed, an attack came.

A massive metal hand descended from above, the two diving out of the way just as it slammed into the ground. As the appendage pulled back, the smoke began to clear, giving Stevonnie and Adora a better view of their new opponent.

The machine stood before them, not as large as a cybercolossus, but larger than a cybertank. It was roughly humanoid in shape, its hands and feet clawed like a monster. Numerous metallic tendrils extended from its back, each one tipped by a cross between a pincer and a laser blaster. Two glowing red eyes pierced through what remained of the fog, locked on the pair.

“Cyberdestroyer online,” Horde Prime said, its voice coming from this metal monstrosity. “Prepare for battle.”

The cyberdestroyer’s tendrils aimed themselves towards the two, firing powerful beams of energy from the tips. Each beam burned a hole in the wall or floor where it hit, with Adora and Stevonnie thankfully dodging out of the way. Horde Prime stomped closer, its tendrils lunging forwards to grab its foes.

Adora blocked one of these, the claw grabbing on to her sword. “You know, I get the feeling Prime was expecting us!” she said.

Stevonnie dodged past the tentacles headed her way, running towards the main body. “But it wasn’t expecting what we’re capable of!” They swung their sword at Horde Prime’s leg, but the blade only glanced off of the metal. “Oh…”

“Control over Etheria: ninety-eight percent and counting,” Horde Prime announced. “Teleportation procedures nearly ready. Preparing to activate the Heart of Etheria.”

“Uh, Adora?” said Stevonnie. “What’s the Heart of Etheria?”

“No idea,” Adora answered. “But if Horde Prime wants to activate it, it can’t be good!”

Try as they might, neither of them were able to do any major damage to the cyberdestroyer. “No good!” said Stevonnie. “Whatever this thing’s made out of, I can’t put a dent in it!”

“Me neither!” said Adora. “I think we might have to make a run for it!”

“Good idea!” Stevonnie said. “If we can destroy the core, Peridot’s virus should take care of the rest!”

While neither of them wanted to give up on this fight, running was definitely the better option. The pair sprinted down the hallway through the giant door, past the cyberdestroyer. Of course, the titanic mechanoid gave chase, its footfalls shaking the ground as it ran after them. Its tendrils fired more of the gigantic beams towards them, many of which they were just barely able to dodge.

A beam passed between the two in a particularly close shave. “Just keep running, we have to find it eventually!” shouted Stevonnie.

“Hang on, I think I see a door up ahead!” said Adora. “It’s too small for that thing to fit through!” Upon reaching it, she was able to pry it open, and she and Stevonnie slid through before the cyberdestroyer could catch up to them; the door closed behind them.

Both took a moment to catch their breath. “Okay…” said Stevonnie. “Now, the thing is, we have no idea of knowing where we are on this ship. Finding the core is going to be that much harder.”

Adora, however, was more focused on what lay within the room they now found themselves in. “Speaking of harder…”

A massive amount of cybertroops waited within, each one staring directly at the pair. Horde Prime must have sent them to block off all the exits. The army of robots descended towards them, blasters firing away.

Just as before, Stevonnie and Adora charged to engage the enemy. While they fought, the wall behind them was slowly being broken down by Horde Prime’s cyberdestroyer. Cracks appeared as the machine pounded against the wall, desperate to break it down and destroy its enemies.

Mere cybertroops no longer seemed to pose any threat to either She-Ra or Stevonnie. Once again, they were completely in tandem in their fight, each one acting as an extension of the other. “Adora...do you feel that?” asked Stevonnie.

“Yeah, I feel it,” she answered. “The only other time I felt like this was…” She paused. “Are you sure?”

“Trust me, if anyone knows about this sort of thing, it would be me!” they answered.

“Alright...let’s do this!”

With one last punch, the cyberdestroyer broke through the obstruction, littering the room with dust and debris. Its optics scanned the room, filled with destroyed cybertroops. And in the center, the being who did it all.

Not quite as large as the cyberdestroyer itself, she was nonetheless massive by human standards. Her armor was the same golden as She-Ra’s, but contained pink highlights as well. Her long golden hair, with streaks of brown, was placed in a ponytail that ran down her back. A familiar pink gemstone was located on her stomach. In one hand, she held the Sword of Protection. In the other, she held Connie’s sword. Her eyes, pink in color, and with star-shaped pupils, stared at Horde Prime’s weapon with steely determination.

“Impossible,” said Horde Prime. “Entity’s power exceeds all known limits.”

“You know it does,” said the woman. She crossed both of her swords over her chest. An aura of power erupted form around her.

“Power at four hundred percent and counting,” Horde Prime said. “Diamond detected.”

“Diamond? I’m no Diamond,” the woman said. She swung both swords to the side, sending her energy outwards in a powerful shockwave. “My name is She-vonnie. And I’m shutting you down for good!”

“Termination protocols updated,” Horde Prime said. All of the tendrils pointed at her, their beams coalescing into one huge laser.

She-vonnie created a bubble around herself, stopping the laser in its tracks. She walked forward, pushing the attack back. She held both swords above her head, swinging them down; the resulting shockwave cleaved the laser in half, before striking the cyberdestroyer. It left a sizable slash mark on the robot’s chest.

The cyberdestroyer charged. It managed to grab She-vonnie in its hand, slamming her against the opposite wall at full speed. The resulting collision smashed the wall down, causing both of them to tumble downwards to the factory below.

Still caught in the machine’s grip, She-vonne used her swords to pry its fingers open and free herself. As they were both still falling, she then leapt towards the wall, embedding both swords into it to slow her descent. The cyberdestroyer, on the other hand, crashed down into the floor below.

Upon landing, She-vonnie looked up to realize that every robot the factory was pumping out had now turned their attention towards her. “Hmm...gonna need two hands for this one!” She held her swords to the side, before slamming them together.

The two swords became one. Its blade was curved like Connie’s, as well as being the same color. The handle and crossguard looked like a combination of the two, as well as the Runestone having a star emblem on it. She-vonnie held up the new blade, pointing it at the approaching enemies.

A cybertank opened fire with its main cannon. She-vonnie summoned Steven’s shield, which also had changed. Despite being the same color and having the same emblem as his shield, its shape was closer to that of Adora’s sword when in shield form. It was still just as effective: the cannon shot collided with it, the explosion blanketing the area. But She-vonnie was unharmed, leaping out of the explosion with enough force to carry herself directly towards the cybertank, where she cleaved it in half with one swing of her sword.

She-vonne sprinted through the endless army of machines, cutting them down as she went. She jumped through the factory, leaping past mechanical arms and across the shoulders of cybercolossi. It wasn’t long, however, before her pursuer returned. The cyberdestroyer chased after her, using its tendrils to carry itself through the upper workings of the factory.

“This thing is persistent!” said She-vonnie. “How about we cut it down to size?” She continued making her way through the factory as the cyberdestroyer chased after her, eventually sending its tendrils in her direction. She-vonnie simply cleaved through them before the claws at the ends could grab her.

The cyberdestroyer lunged at her, though she simply leapt out of its way. Not one to be denied, Horde Prime then sent a cybercolossus to block her path. Before the titanic machine could blast her, She-vonnie launched herself directly at it. Sword extended, the fusion pierced through the robot like an arrow.

Persistent as ever, the cyberdestroyer tore through the cybercolossus to get to its target. Tendrils extended, it fired its beams at She-vonnie. The fusion summoned her shield, blocking the lasers in their tracks.

“Nice try! But not nice enough!” She-vonnie once again launched herself at the cyberdestroyer. Its tendrils shot out to grab her, but she sliced each of them apart. The machine threw a punch at the approaching warrior, but she was able to slice through its arm just as easily.

Both combatants returned to the ground. Though it was down one appendage, the cyberdestroyer showed no sign of slowing down. It charged She-vonnie, who held her ground. “Let’s see how you like this!”

She-vonnie pointed her sword at the approaching robot, her weapon beginning to glow. Before the cyberdestroyer even got the chance to get close, a beam of light shot forth from the blade. The beam pierced through the robot’s head, causing it to explode into metal fragments. The remains of its body fell to the ground, skidding to a halt.

“And that takes care of that!” said She-vonnie. “Now to find that core…”

“Control over Etheria: ninety-nine percent and counting,” Horde Prime said, its voice reverberating throughout the whole ship.

“Well, guess we  _ really _ need to find that core!” she said. “Let’s see...I think it’s…” She held out her sword, as if feeling for the core’s location. “...this way!” Having evidently found it, she took off running.

Doors and walls meant nothing to She-vonnie, who could now simply slice right through the obstructions. It wasn’t long before she reached the core chamber.

A gigantic sphere of pure white energy was suspended in the middle of the room, above what seemed to be some manner of centrifuge located below. “Alright, this is definitely the place,” said She-vonnie. “Now we just gotta shut this thing down! ...Somehow.”

Her first thought was to fire more beams into the sphere itself, which accomplished nothing. “Come on, come on, think! There has to be  _ some _ way to bust this thing up!”

Her attempts were interrupted when something tried to attack her from behind. She heard something coming, and was able to dodge the attack at the last moment. It was the cyberdestroyer, having pulled itself to the core chamber despite lacking a head and one of its arms.

The damaged machine now stood opposite She-vonnie. Its internal mechanisms whirred and clicked as its chest unfolded, revealing something hidden within. A backup head was pieced together, being placed where the old one sat. A single red eye seemed to glare directly at She-vonnie.

“Oh, come on!” she exclaimed. “It has a second head!?”

A laser beam shot from its eye, which She-vonnie blocked with her shield. The force of the blast was still powerful enough to push her back. She braced herself, pushing against the beam. By the time it stopped firing, she almost fell to the ground.

“Control over Etheria: one hundred percent,” said Horde Prime. “Beginning trans-dimensional transfer protocols.” All across Etheria, the portals that had previously dotted the skies now began to spread out across the entire planet, forming a web of sorts. Once they all connected, the planet would be transferred back into the main universe. And Prime would be free to use its power for whatever purpose it desired.

“Not good, not good, not good!” said She-vonnie. She looked around, trying to come up with some way to stop Horde Prime. Her vision was drawn to the core, and the spinning blades down below. She then turned towards the cyberdestroyer, which stood just on the precipice. “Bingo!”

She-vonnie sprinted at her foe, her sword drawn back. The cyberdestroyer fired another blast from its eye, which She-vonnie simply slid under. She leapt back up, slicing the robot’s leg clean off. Thrown off-balance, it fell to the side...barely avoiding falling into the core.

“Figures…” She-vonnie grumbled. She ran back towards it, avoiding the tendrils that it sent her way. The cyberdestroyer thrust out its arm to grab her, but she caught it first, throwing it aside. She reached the machine’s main body, piercing it with her blade.

She-vonnie struggled as she tried to lift the cyberdestroyer above her head. It slowly rose up, as she visibly strained with effort. “Come on...just a bit further! We can do this!”

Back on the surface, Horde Prime’s forces were tearing into the resistance. Princess, Gem, even the people of the Etherian Horde were overwhelmed by the sheer number of machines. She-vonnie could feel their pain, their misery, their terror. Brightmoon was being overrun. The Fright Zone was under siege. The  _ Crystallon _ was being invaded. And everywhere in between, innocent people cried out as their planet was being ripped through space and time, and Horde Prime’s armies surrounded them.

Rather than drag her down into hopelessness, She-vonnie only fought harder at this. Neither Adora, Steven, nor Connie were one to let terrible odds keep them down. And their combined form was no different. With one last yell of exertion, She-vonnie pulled out every last drop her strength, lifting the machine above her head.

“She-Ra. Finish this fight.”

She-vonnie threw the broken form of the cyberdestroyer down into the core. It tumbled down, colliding with the spinning mechanisms and being torn asunder. The core’s internal systems were shredded as well, being riddled with explosions as She-vonnie looked on in triumph.

The glowing white orb began pulse and quake, its shape gradually distorting. Its white hue slowly began to shift to orange, and eventually red, as it slowly grew in size. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was happening.

“Ooh...maybe I didn’t think this one through enough…” she said.

With the force of a million tons of dynamite, give or take, the core ruptured, taking the rest of the ship with it. With no more defenses in place, all across Etheria, cybertroops began to shut down. Entrapta and Peridot’s virus was working.

Out from the fireball that used to be the First Ones vessel, a single object descended. Safe within a pink bubble, Steven, Adora, and Connie all cheered over their victory.

“We did it!” said Connie, she and Steven embracing. “Jam buds for life!”

“I helped, too!” said Adora.

“You did more than help!” said Steven. “We wouldn’t have been able to do this without you!”

“Same to you,” said Adora. “We never would have been able to win this without you or your friends.”

“Wow…” said Connie, looking over the planet beneath them. “It’s beautiful.”

Adora looked out at the view. “Woah,” she said in awe. “I’ve never seen Etheria from up here before. It really is beautiful.”

All three of them sat back to enjoy the view, safe and sound in their bubble, content in knowing that the battle had been won.


	24. Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war is finally over. The universe is at peace. Everybody heads back home. Everything finally comes to an end. Or does it...?

Chapter Twenty-Four: Universe

_ _ _

All across Etheria, and beyond, Horde Prime’s machines began to shut down. The virus surged through the network, attacking the very program that was Horde Prime. It was as if a big power switch had been flipped, ending its reign of terror across the universe all at once. Earth, Homeworld, and Etheria were all free.

As well as the robots deactivating, the portals Horde Prime had opened were beginning to close as well. Like water flowing down a drain, the tears through space itself gradually disappeared, including the one that nearly surrounded all of Etheria.

Brightmoon was safe. When Horde Prime fell, as did its hold over the planet. The power of the Runestones was returned to its rightful owners. Mermista, Perfuma, and Frosta descended to the ground from their combined golem. Likewise, Alexandrite defused into her component Gems. Cheers erupted all across the kingdom and beyond, the threat finally vanquished.

“We did it!” Frosta exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “And that’s what happens when you mess with the Princess Alliance!”

Garnet looked around them, adjusting her visor. “Well done, team,” she said. “Another victory for the Crystal--eh?”

She, Amethyst, and Pearl were all suddenly caught in a hug by Perfuma. “Ooh, we couldn’t have done any of this without you!” she said.

“Hey, calm down, there!” Amethyst said jokingly. “You’re gonna poof us if you’re not careful!”

“Um...just happy we were able to help,” said Pearl.

“Yeah, we were all pretty spectacular out there,” Mermista said with a small grin. “I should probably get going back to Salineas, though, to make sure Sea Hawk hasn’t completely burned the whole kingdom down while I was gone…”

“Oh, Salineas is fine!” said Perfuma. “You can afford to stay for a little while longer!”

“Yeah, you’re gonna miss the party!” said Amethyst.

“What party?” Pearl asked.

“We just defeated an interplanetary robot overlord, of  _ course _ we’re having a party!” Amethyst clarified.

Not far off from them, Entrapta stood next to the fallen form of Emily’s cybercolossus form. Though unaffected by the virus, Emily had taken heavy damage at the hands of the other cybercolossi. Rather than mourn, Entrapta had simply hooked up her data pad to the access port on the giant machine’s back. Within moments, happy beeping emerged from the pad.

“There you go, Emily!” said Entrapta. “Sorry your new body didn’t last long. I’ll build you another one soon.” Just then, her eyes were drawn to a cybertroop that stood nearby, untouched by the combat. “Hmm…”

Closer to the castle proper, Bismuth kicked a cybertroop to the ground. “Yeah, what? What you got, Horde Prime!? You can’t handle the Crystal Gems!” She then noticed that Glimmer was standing beside her. “Oh, and the princesses, too!”

“I just can’t believe it’s really over!” said Bow. “It...it is over, isn’t it?”

Queen Angella descended from above, touching down beside the three of them. “Yes, I believe it is,” she said. “For the first time in years, Etheria is at peace.”

Glimmer and her mother embraced, both just overjoyed to have survived this ordeal. Bow joined in as well. Finally, Bismuth scooped all three of them up in a hug of her own. “Aww, you guys!” she said.

However, something caused the large Gem to drop them. She didn’t even know she had, as she just kept sitting there quietly while the three of them sat on the ground. “Uh, Bismuth?” said Glimmer.

“Hmm? How’d you get down there?” asked Bismuth. She looked at herself, and was startled with the revelation that she was partially see-through. “Okay...what?”

To test Bismuth’s newfound condition, Bow experimentally reached a hand out, finding that his arm passed right through her. Bismuth tried the same, finding that her arm passed right through Bow. When she placed her hand on her Gem, she found nothing out of the ordinary. “That’s...definitely not normal,” said Bow.

“Yeah, no kiddin’, it’s not normal!” Bismuth exclaimed. “Did that crazy virus infect me, too!? Am I gonna disappear!?”

“You guys!” Everyone turned to see Frosta running over. “Something weird’s going on with the Gems!”

“We noticed,” Glimmer said, indicating Bismuth. “Are they disappearing, too?”

“It seems like it.” Pearl and the other Gems walked over as well. All three of them were just as transparent as Bismuth, and seemed to be slowly growing more so.

“This is because of that Virus, isn’t it?” said Bismuth. “It must have somehow jumped ship from Horde Prime to us Gems!”

“Bismuth, look at me,” Garnet said, placing a comforting hand on the other Gem’s shoulder; it didn’t pass through. “This isn’t because of the virus. Look.” She held up her hands, showing her gemstones. “Our gems are fading as well. A virus wouldn’t cause something like that. This is because of something else.”

“But, uh...what?” asked Amethyst. “It looks like it’s only happening to the four of us.”

Angella was looking upwards--not at something, but a lack of something. “The skies have cleared,” she said. “Before now, Horde Prime had full control of Etheria. I believe it was attempting to transport the world into your reality.”

“So, now that Steven and Connie stopped it...you think we’re being teleported back to Earth?” said Bismuth.

“Hopefully,” said Bow. “Better than being teleported into empty space…”

“But they’re leaving so soon!” said Perfuma. “We won’t have any time to celebrate!”

“Don’t worry about us,” said Garnet. She tried to place a hand on Perfuma’s shoulder as she did with Bismuth, but it wasn’t nearly as successful. She continued regardless. “Just be happy that the universe is safe.”

Within the skies over Etheria, others were noticing the strange phenomenon as well. Not only were the passengers aboard the  _ Crystallon _ , but the ship as well, were beginning to fade away.

“What is going on!?” said Pyrope, Duchess wrapped tightly around her leg. “Did that virus of yours somehow infect us!?” she yelled at Peridot.

“Prope, calm yourself,” said Demantoid. “Software such as a virus would be unable to affect solid objects such as this. This is simply the result of space-time flux due to the rapid deterioration of a nearby dimensional gateway combined with our being unattuned to this reality.”

“Yes, of course, that’s what it is,” said Hessonite. “I knew it all along.”

“Then why are you clinging so tightly to Demantoid?” asked Lapis.

Hessonite released her fellow Garnet from her iron grip. “Well, for safety purposes, of course. I was simply unsure whether or not we would have fallen through the floor of the ship. I may be an expert, but even I have shortcomings!”

“You can say that again,” said Pyrope, prying Duchess off of herself.

“So, does this mean we’re going back to Earth?” asked Peridot.

“The two of you will,” said Demantoid. “All of us will return to the last location we were present before entering this dimension.”

“Well, in that case, I guess this is goodbye,” said Lapis. “Thank you all for your help, all of you.”

“No problem!” said Duchess.

“I’m sure we will see each other again,” said Hessonite. “As long as Gems are in trouble, we’ll do what we can to help them! And I’m sure that means our paths will cross before long!”

As everyone who had recently been transported to Etheria was being affected by this phenomenon, this also included Steven and Connie. Adora, understandably, was quite surprised to see the two of them fading away into thin air up in their bubble. “So, is this something you guys just do on Earth, or…?”

“Not that I know of,” said Steven. “Maybe it’s something to do with Horde Prime.”

“But then, how come it isn’t affecting Adora?” said Connie.

“...Maybe it  _ is _ an Earth thing,” Steven said. “The only time I’ve ever seen someone disappear like this is when the Gems use the warp pads.”

“I guess that’s what this is,” said Adora. “So...where do you think you’re going?”

Steven shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say somewhere on Earth. But I don’t know for sure.”

“Well...I guess this is goodbye, then,” said Adora. “You’re heading back to your world, and I’m going back to mine.”

“Yeah,” said Connie. “I know these past few weeks have been filled with crazed zombies and homicidal machines, but at the same time, I’m really glad we got to meet each other.”

“Me, too!” said Steven. “I’m gonna miss you guys!”

“We’ll miss you all, too,” Adora said. Steven and Connie went in for a group hug, but in their current state they simply passed through Adora. Looking confused, Adora simply pretended to hug their transparent forms.

“Hey, Adora?” said Steven. “Once you get back down, could you tell everyone I’ll miss them, too?”

“Of course,” said Adora. And just like that, Steven and Connie disappeared, vanishing out of Etheria, and Despondos. They had returned home.

And with them, Steven’s bubble disappeared as well.

Adora noticed what had happened a split second before plummeting down to the earth below. While the trio had drifted closer to the ground than they had been, she was still quite high up. Understandably fearful, Adora had let go of her sword in the ordeal, unable to locate it as she tumbled downward.

Before she could hit the ground, a powerful gust of wind seemed to cushion her, slowing her descent. Adora opened her eyes, noticing Spinnerella hovering not far from her, creating the winds that held her aloft. Spinnerella then lowered Adora closer to the ground, where she landed on a net made by Netossa. This net then dissipated, placing her safely on the ground.

“Adora!” shouted Bow, running over to embrace the girl. Glimmer teleported in to hug her as well. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No, I--I’m fine,” Adora said, unhurt, but still shaken up from her fall. Her hair was a complete mess from the winds. “But, um, has anyone seen my sword?”

“Did shomebody shay ‘Adora’sh Shword?’” Swift Wind swooped in from above, carrying the Sword of Protection in his mouth. He deposited it on the ground in front of Adora. “Here. I figured you might need this.”

“Thanks, Swift Wind,” Adora said. She picked up the sword by its blade, not wanting to touch the saliva on its hilt. “I’m just gonna put this right here for now,” she said, leaning it up against a tree.”

“So, I guess you did it,” said Netossa. “Good work up there, kid!”

“Thanks, but I couldn’t have done it alone,” Adora said. She then remembered what had happened. “Oh. Steven and Connie, they...I don’t really know how to describe this…”

“Disappeared?” said Glimmer. “Yeah, the same thing happened to the Gems down here, too. “We think they’re somehow being teleported back to Earth.”

“Anyway, Steven said he’d miss you guys,” Adora said.

“And we’ll miss him, too,” said Perfuma. “We’ll miss all of them.”

“Yeah. They really were a big help,” said Glimmer, looking around at the cybertroops that littered their surroundings. “I hope sometime we’ll be able to see each other again. Hopefully without the fate of our worlds being in danger.” Everyone agreed.

“Hey, has anyone seen Entrapta?” asked Bow. “She was here earlier, but I haven’t seen her since the robots stopped working.”

“You know how Entrapta is, she loves machines,” said Mermista. “She’s probably having a field day out there somewhere. She’ll turn up eventually.”

“I hope you’re right,” Bow said. “I’d hate for her to go back to the Horde after all of this…”

_ _ _

“So, uh, I guess we won, then,” said Scorpia, stepping over the deactivated cybertroops. “What do you think happened?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” said Catra. “All that matters is that Hordak is still gone.”

The pair, after the Horde Prime crisis was over, had gone looking for Hordak and Entrapta at Scorpia’s insistence. The first place they looked was Hordak’s sanctum. “Well, they aren’t...still in here, so I guess they escaped,” said Scorpia.

“Entrapta’ll turn up eventually,” said Catra, travelling further into the sanctum, obscured by darkness. “She always does. She’s Entrapta.”

“Yeah, but what about Hordak?” said Scorpia. “If word gets out that he’s missing...how will everyone react? We’ll have a full-on crisis on our hands!” She looked down. “...claws.”

“Scorpia, I can tell you right now that that isn’t a problem we’ll have to deal with,” said Catra, still obscured by darkness.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I mean, people are bound to notice eventually. I don’t know how you plan to...Catra?”

She looked up to see Catra’s silhouette. Something about her looked different. When she stepped into the light, Scorpia saw what this was: she was wearing Hordak’s old armor. It was a bit big and stifling on her, and there was nowhere for her tail to go, but it actually looked quite good on her. “How do I look?”

“Woah…” said Scorpia. “Oh! I get what you’re doing! You’re gonna pretend to be Hordak until we can find him!”

“Wh--No!” snapped Catra. “Now that Hordak and Shadow Weaver are gone, I’m taking my rightful place as leader of the Horde! Someone needs to be in charge...so why not me?” She strolled up to Hordak’s throne, seating herself upon it. “I’ll be able to do a better job running this place than he ever could.”

Scorpia was awed. She threw her claws into the air; “All hail Lord Catra!”

“‘Lord Catra,” Catra repeated. “Now there’s a title I can get used to.”

_ _ _

Hordak stirred. Imp had been trying to awaken him for minutes, and was finally successful. The former leader of the Horde sat up. “Where...are we?”

He looked around, seeing nothing but desert in all directions. The heat of the sun beat down on the two of them, with no shelter in sight. Nothing but red sand all around, with only a few scattered plants and giant skeletons dotting the landscape.

“Impossible,” Hordak said. “The Crimson Waste?” For a moment, dread gripped the Horde’s former leader. Nothing could survive in the Crimson Waste. But just as soon as it had arrived, the dread was replaced with determination. Nothing...but Hordak himself. If he could be thrust into an alien world and create an army from nothing, he could certainly survive this.

“Come, little friend,” said Hordak, urging Imp to perch on his arm. “We are not dead yet. We have much work to do if we are to return home.”

_ _ _

“Huh? Are we dead yet?” Rhodonite opened her eyes, seeing that her ship and crew still surrounded her.

“Nooooot yeeeeet,” said Fluorite. “We’re definitely not on Etheria anymore,” said Lars. They seemed to be surrounded once again by stars. “Padparadscha, status report!”

“I predict that--I mean, we seem to have returned to our reality,” said the Sapphire. “When Steven and the others destroyed Horde Prime, the resulting dimensional flux transported all of us back to the main universe.”

“Huh,” said Lars. “Well then, I guess it’s back to our original mission! Rutile, how far away are we from Earth?”

“We seem to have emerged just at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy,” Rutile said. “It should only take us a few days to reach Earth.”

“Oh, yay!” said Padparadscha. “I can’t wait to finally see Captain Lars’ home!”

“Me, too, Paddy,” said Lars. “I can’t wait, either. Full speed ahead!”

_ _ _

Steven and Connie looked around themselves. The seagulls calling; the cool sea breeze; the evening sun; the waves against the sand. They were back in Beach City.

Looking behind him, Steven saw the temple again. “We’re...we’re home,” he said. “We’re finally home!”

The other Gems were present as well. “Yes!” said Peridot, running up the stairs of Steven’s house and embracing the front door. “I never thought I’d be so glad to see an Earth dwelling in my life!”

“Me, either,” said Lapis, looking out at the ocean. “I’m glad to be...home.”

“Aww, yeah!” said Amethyst. “It’s good to be back!”

“It sure is,” said Connie. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open. “Omigosh, I just realized! My parents must be worried sick!” She ran off towards the town proper, giving Steven one last look. “Bye, Steven! I’d love to stay a bit, but this can’t wait!”

“That’s alright!” said Steven, waving goodbye. “Tell your parents hi for me!”

“Will do!” Connie ran off back to the town.

“You know, Steven, your father is probably worried about you, too,” said Pearl. “We should probably go and pay Greg a visit.”

“Yeah, I will,” Steven said. “But, actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you about, Pearl.”

“Ask away.”

“Back when I was fighting Horde Prime, Stevonnie and Adora fused together. But when we did, Horde Prime said something like ‘Diamond detected.’ Do...do you have any idea why?”

Pearl seemed taken aback by the question. “Well, you and Connie have a very strong bond,” she said. “Plus, you and Adora are all very powerful. Your combined form most likely had power similar to that of a Diamond.”

“That’s what I thought at the time,” said Steven. “But looking back...why would a machine that was designed to hunt Gems make a mistake like that? Something here doesn’t make sense…”

And from that moment, nothing was the same. Secrets would be revealed. Lives would be changed forever. Bonds would be tested. Meanwhile, after the combined attacks of not only Skeletor, but Horde Prime as well, Homeworld soon came to realize that they needed a new weapon. Not content to wait any longer, Blue and Yellow Diamond would soon come to personally collect the Cluster. But that is a story for another time.

_ _ _

“And so, here we are,” said Double Trouble. “The boss is really excited to meet you. I told him that he should fix the place up a little, but you know how he can be! All business, all the time, as usual.”

Shadow Weaver said nothing as she followed behind the shapeshifter. After Horde Prime had fallen, they had met her to escort her to the Surgeon’s camp. Shadow Weaver was not impressed by what she saw; for such an influential figure, the Surgeon was operating out of quite a ramshackle site. Makeshift tents littered the area, while his mutated minions shamled to and fro between them. They seemed to be quite disorganized.

“Anyways, he’s right down here,” said Double Trouble, directing Shadow Weaver into an underground bunker. “I’ll wait here for you!” The sorceress descended the stairway into the darkness.

Lining the walls of this bunker were many of the Surgeon’s experiments. Several of them were mechanical in nature, but they were mostly biological. Unrecognizeable creatures floated in vats of liquid, twisted into monstrous forms by some unseen force. The few of them that could be recognized were creatures or people from Etheria, heavily mutated. Shadow Weaver couldn’t tell if many of them were alive or dead; not that it mattered to her.

She finally reached the Surgeon’s workshop, where the man himself waited. He stood in the shadows, two other figures by his side. “Shadow Weaver,” came his metallic voice. She wasn’t sure where, but she was certain that she had heard this voice somewhere before. “How nice to finally meet you in person. Or rather...to see you again, after all this time.”

“Enough smoke and mirrors, Surgeon,” said Shadow Weaver. “You have wasted enough of my time. Reveal yourself.”

“As you wish.” The three figures stepped into the light; they were anything but human.

The being on the right was spindly, held up by four clawed legs, and holding a pair of clawed arms out in front of it. It was covered in some sort of carapace, cobalt blue in color. Its head possessed some sort of frill, but its face was its most notable, and horrific, feature. It possessed a pair of bloodshot red eyes, that seemed to be too big for its skull, as they bulged out unnaturally. Its mouth was filled with needle-like teeth that jutted out at all angles.

The being on the left was much larger and bulkier. A good foot taller than the other two, it nevertheless was hunched over, walking on its knuckles like an ape. It had slimy green skin, like an amphibian. It had two beady red eyes on the sides of its head, as its face was a circular mouth lined with teeth, much like that of a lamprey--no, more like a leech.

But it was the figure in the center that stood out the most: despite his monstrous appearance, he held himself with such a dignified air. His skin was smooth and orange, and he wore what appeared to be Horde armor over his chest. Rather than legs, he held himself up with six tentacles, each one splitting into three smaller tendrils near the ground. His arms were similar, being boneless tentacles tipped with three-fingered hands, which were clasped together in front of him. His oblong head possessed two red eyes that were far too human-like to belong to such a creature, and his mouth was contorted into a toothy grin.

Shadow Weaver was unafraid of these monstrosities. In fact, the moment they stepped into the light, she recognized the one in the center. “Force Captain Modulok,” she said. “So, you have been the Surgeon all this time. And here, I thought you were rotting on Beast Island.”

The Surgeon, Modulok, laughed. “Rotting? Oh, no, I was thriving!” His voice came not from his mouth, but from a mechanical device he wore around his neck. “Being banished was perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to me. I’ve created an empire to rival even the Horde!”

“And yet, you need my help,” Shadow Weaver said.

“Yes, yes, I have,” said the orange creature. He strolled closer to her, the other two staying close behind him. “Even a genius needs assistance. Unlike you, I am simply not too proud to admit it.”

Shadow Weaver’s eyes narrowed. “And what is it you seek to accomplish?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Modulok said, growling lightly. “Simply to retake my--excuse me,  _ our _ \--rightful place as sovereign rulers of the universe. And with Horde Prime gone, and those Gems out of the way...we can accomplish just that.” His back to her, he turned his head slightly to face her. “My dear Shadow Weaver, how can you say no to power this great?”

Shadow Weaver answered after a moment of hesitation. “I suppose I cannot,” she said. “Very well. I will assist you...so long as I have something to gain.”

Modulok laughed, turning to face his new partner. He held out his hand, which Shadow Weaver took, wisps of darkness dancing around her palm. “We are going to wreak such beautiful havoc together, you and I.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! I had an absolute blast writing this...and I hope to have just as much fun writing the next one!
> 
> You heard right, dear reader, we're not done yet! There is still more to the tale of Steven Universe and She-Ra! More action, more adventure, more drama! I hope you'll be right there with me with the next installment, coming soon!
> 
> Hope you liked this story, and I'll see you next time!


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